Punjab Police to bring back jailed MP Amritpal’s seven aides from Assam after NSA detention ends

Chandigarh: The Punjab Police will bring back seven associates of jailed MP and radical preacher Amritpal Singh from Assam’s Dibrugarh jail after the state government decided not to reinvoke the NSA at the end of their detention period, a top officer said on Sunday.

They will be formally arrested in the 2023 Ajnala police station attack incident and face the law, Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said.

Amritpal, the chief of the Waris Punjab De outfit, and his nine associates have been in detention in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act (NSA) since 2023.

In 2024, their detention period under the NSA was extended by a year.

Moga natives Basant Singh, Bhagwant Singh alias Pradhan Mantri Bajeke, Gurmeet Singh Gill alias Gurmeet Bukkanwala and Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal alias Kulwant Singh; Gurinderpal Singh Aujla alias Guri Aujla (Phagwara); Harjeet Singh alias Chacha (Amritsar); and Sarabjeet Singh Kalsi alias Daljeet Singh Kalsi (Delhi) will be brought back to Punjab, according to DGP Yadav.

Their detention period under the NSA is about to expire and the Punjab government has decided not to extend it, he said.

A team headed by Superintendent of Police Harinder Singh Gill is stationed at Dibrugarh jail to execute the seven detainees’ arrest.

The Punjab Police will produce them before a Dibrugarh court to secure transit remand, ensuring their swift return to Punjab to face trial, Yadav said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Border Range, Amritsar) Satinder Singh had earlier said the police would take the investigation forward in the 2023 Ajnala police station attack incident.

He said the 10 detainees had not been formally arrested in the police station attack incident.

“We are taking the investigation in the matter forward. We will arrest the seven persons in FIR number 39 and bring them back to Punjab,” he told reporters in Amritsar.

“We will bring them here in that case and take the investigation forward,” he further said.

He, however, refused to comment when asked about Amritpal. The radical preacher had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as an Independent candidate and won from the Khadoor Sahib seat.

Amritpal, who styled himself after slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested in Moga’s Rode village on April 23, 2023, following an over month-long manhunt.

The Khalistan sympathiser had escaped the police net in Jalandhar district on March 18, 2023, switching vehicles and changing appearances.

The Punjab Police had launched the crackdown after the February 23, 2023, Ajnala incident in which Amritpal and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, allegedly broke through barricades and barged into the police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city, and clashed with personnel for the release of his aides.

While attacking the police station, Amritpal and his supporters had taken refuge under Sri Palki Sahib with ‘parkash’ of Guru Granth Sahib.

Amritpal and his associates were booked on charges of spreading disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police personnel and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duty by public servants.