Crackdown against Amritpal: Assam detainees not in illegal custody, Punjab tells HC

The Punjab government on Tuesday told Punjab and Haryana high court that associates of radical Sikh preacher, Amritpal Singh, sent to Dibrugarh in Assam are detained under the National Security Act 1980 and not in illegal custody.

Replies filed on a clutch of petitions by Amritsar (Rural) senior superintendent of police, Satinder Singh, said that detainees have been booked under the NSA Act and due process of law has been followed in securing the detention and as such habeas corpus petitions are not maintainable in these matters. In most of the cases, it was also stated family members were informed of the detention. These persons have been detained following a crackdown against Amritpal Singh, Waris Punjab De chief, who is on the run since March 18, when the crackdown was launched in Punjab.

The pleas seeking the release of these persons were from Narinder Kaur, wife of actor Sarabjit Singh Kalsi alias Daljit Kalsi; Pavitar Kaur, wife of Gurmeet Singh Bhukkanwala; Harjinder Singh, father of Pradhanmantri Bajeke; Surjit Singh, father of Basant Singh, Virpal Kaur, wife of Kulwant Singh, and Simranjit Kaur, wife of Varinder Singh, alias Fauji, the bodyguard of the Sikh preacher. One more petition taken up was from Karnail Singh Panjoli, a member of the SGPC, who also demanded that he be allowed to meet the detainees.

Talking about the role of Kalsi, the police told the court that he was actively supporting Amritpal in his activities and was himself indulging in activities “prejudicial to the security of the state as well as to the maintenance of public law and order”.

The affidavit claimed that Kalsi was supporting Amritpal in professing radical ideology and raised “the demand of secession of Punjab from India by violent means”. Fixing the matter for April 24 for “final disposal” the bench of justice NS Shekhawat has granted a “last opportunity” to lawyers of petitioners to respond to the state’s reply.