A 25-member Punjab Police team, led by Superintendent of Police (SP) Harinder Singh Gill, has been stationed in Assam’s Dibrugarh for the past two days to oversee the transfer of seven aides of radical preacher and Member of Parliament Amritpal Singh from Dibrugarh Central Jail to Punjab. The team includes senior officers such as the Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) and the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP).
Detention Under NSA Nears Expiry
The Punjab government has decided not to extend the National Security Act (NSA) detention of these individuals, which was initially imposed in 2023 and extended for another year in 2024. With their NSA detention ending, authorities will now formally arrest them for their alleged role in the 2023 Ajnala police station attack.
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav confirmed this development, stating that legal proceedings for their transfer are in progress.
Legal Formalities Underway for Transfer
The Punjab Police team in Dibrugarh is currently securing a transit remand from a local court to facilitate the transfer. “We will arrest the seven persons in FIR number 39 and bring them back to Punjab,” said Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police (Border Range, Amritsar) Satinder Singh. He noted that these detainees had not been formally arrested earlier in connection with the police station attack case.
Who Are the Detainees?
The seven individuals to be transferred include Basant Singh, Bhagwant Singh (alias Pradhan Mantri Bajeke), Gurmeet Singh Gill (alias Gurmeet Bukkanwala), and Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal (alias Kulwant Singh) from Moga. Others include Gurinder Singh Aujla (alias Guri Aujla) from Phagwara, Harjeet Singh (alias Chacha) from Amritsar, and Sarabjeet Singh Kalsi (alias Daljeet Singh Kalsi) from Delhi.
The Case Against Amritpal Singh and His Supporters
Amritpal Singh, leader of Waris Punjab De, was detained under the NSA in April 2023 following a month-long police hunt. The crackdown followed the February 2023 Ajnala incident, in which Amritpal and his supporters allegedly stormed the Ajnala police station armed with swords and firearms to demand the release of an associate.
During the attack, they reportedly took cover under Sri Palki Sahib with the ‘parkash’ of Guru Granth Sahib, according to PTI.
Amritpal, a known Khalistan sympathizer, later contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate and won from the Khadoor Sahib constituency. However, his legal troubles persist due to his involvement in the Ajnala police station attack.
Authorities remain firm on pursuing the investigation. “We are taking the investigation in the matter forward. We will bring them here in that case and take the investigation forward,” stated DIG Satinder Singh.