LI Network
Published on: 24 April 2023 at 16:59 IST
Last month, a plea was filed alleging that Amritpal Singh, a radical preacher, was being held in unlawful police custody. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court rejected the plea on Monday, after Singh’s arrest in Moga district.
In previous court hearings, the state of Punjab denied detaining or arresting Singh and demanded proof of his illegal custody.
The court asked for evidence but found none. Singh was arrested in Rode village in Moga district, ending a month-long manhunt, and was subsequently detained under the National Security Act and sent to the Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam. Singh’s legal advisor stated that since he was now in custody, the petition was dismissed as infructuous.
The radical preacher Amritpal Singh was arrested at 6:45 am outside a gurdwara in Rode, the native village of Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and the place where Singh took over as the chief of ‘Waris Punjab De’ last year.
He was detained under the National Security Act (NSA) and flown to the Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam. Last month, police launched a major crackdown against Singh and his outfit members.
Singh had managed to escape the police in Jalandhar district on March 18 but was eventually caught. He and his associates were charged with several criminal cases related to creating disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police personnel, and obstructing the lawful discharge of duty by public servants.
The next date for the matter of pleas filed by relatives of Singh’s associates has been fixed on May 1 by the bench of Justice N S Shekhawat.
The relatives had sought the quashing of detention orders, and they will now challenge the grounds of detention orders in their amended petition.
The Punjab government had informed the high court that Daljit Singh Kalsi, a close associate of Amritpal Singh, was supporting the preacher in professing radical ideology and abetting the creation of a separate nation, Khalistan.