Jailed head of Waris Punjab De and Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha MP Amritpal Singh challenged his detention under the NSA in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 19. The head of the pro-Khalistani outfit is lodged in a prison in Assam’s Dibrugarh district under the National Security Act.
Singh, detained in Dibrugarh Jail since April 2023, argues that his preventive detention is unlawful and extreme. The Waris Punjab De outfit chief is also accused in the Ajnala Police Station attack.
The detention order was issued in March 2023 following a provocative speech. Singh’s plea claims his detention is based on social media posts with no significant impact on Punjab’s security.
Singh contends that the DM of Amritsar overstepped authority by issuing the detention order and that only the Union or state government could do so. Singh, represented by advocate Amar Jeet Singh and senior advocate RS Bains, asserted that his right to represent his constituency was violated and argued his detention violated his constitutional rights.
Amritpal Singh, who won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib parliamentary constituency as an independent candidate, is originally a resident of Jallu Kheda village in Amritsar. He used to live in Dubai before returning to Punjab in 2022 after the death of Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu and became the head of Deep Sidhu’s pro-Khalistani organisation, Waris Punjab De.
Singh was arrested from Moga’s Rode village after he and his supporters on February 23, 2023, clashed with police personnel at the Ajnala police station in an attempt to free one of his aides, who was taken into custody for making inflammatory and pro-Khalistan statements.
Punjab Police registered a case against Amritpal Singh under the National Security Act (NSA) and he was sent to Dibrugarh Jail in Assam.
In the 2024 elections, Singh won from the Khadoor Sahib seat. He was recently granted a four-day custody parole and brought to Delhi so that he could take oath as a Lok Sabha member.