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Amritpal challenges Punjab govt decision, back in HC with plea to attend Parliament
Day after Delhi high court’s permission to Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha member, who is jailed in Assam under NSA, seeks temporary release to attend winter session that begins on December 1.
Radical Sikh leader and Lok Sabha MP Amritpal Singh on Friday moved the Punjab and Haryana high court again, seeking temporary release to attend the winter session of Parliament and challenging the Punjab government decision to reject his representation.
Last week, the high court had directed the state government to decide on the Khadoor Sahib MP’s petition seeking temporary release to attend the winter session of Parliament that begins on December 1.
On Wednesday, the Punjab government had rejected his representation reportedly citing potential law and order issues after receiving a report from the police.
In Friday’s plea, Amritpal challenged the Punjab government’s decision and sought the high court’s intervention seeking parole to attend Parliament. In his plea, he also cited the case of Baramulla Awami Ittehad Party MP Engineer Rashid, who was on Thursday permitted by the Delhi high court to attend the winter session.
Amritpal’s lawyer Imaan Singh Khara said that a request for listing the matter for “urgent hearing” was made on Friday morning and the court ordered that it be listed on Monday.
Amritpal has been under detention at Dibrugarh jail in Assam since his arrest in April 2023 under the National Security Act (NSA) even as his nine other associates were brought back to Punjab earlier this year.
Amritpal, who styled himself after slain militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested in Moga’s Rode village on April 23, 2023, after a month-long hunt. The Khalistan sympathiser had escaped the police net in Jalandhar district on March 18, 2023, switching vehicles and changing appearances. Punjab Police launched the crackdown on him after he and his armed supporters laid siege to the police station at Ajnala on the outskirts of Amritsar on February 23, 2023, to get his aide released.
The radical Sikh preacher won the Khadoor Sahib seat with 1.9 lakh votes as an Independent in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and was administered the oath of office on July 5, 2024. Since then, he has not attended Parliament.
