Radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who was elected the MP from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib seat after contesting the elections from a jail in Assam, has been granted parole for four days, beginning Friday, to take the oath of office.
Singh, who is in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, had written to the Punjab Government on June 11 and asked to be released temporarily so that he could be sworn in. The state government had sent an application to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and the parole decision was taken based on that.
Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said on Wednesday, “Amritpal Singh has been granted parole for 4 days or less from July 5 with certain conditions, about which the jail superintendent, Dibrugarh, has been informed.”
After getting a nod from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid, who is in jail in the 2017 Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case, will be sworn in on Saturday as the MP from the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency. Sources said it is likely that both Singh and Rashid will be administered the oath in the Speaker’s room on Saturday, after getting the go-ahead from the government and concerned agencies.
Singh’s lawyer and his family, however, said they don’t have any information about the date of the swearing-in event.
The preacher, who is the head of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ political group, contested the Lok Sabha elections as an Independent and defeated Kulbir Singh Zira of the Congress with a margin of nearly 2 lakh votes.
The MP, who says he is inspired by Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was named in several cases related to spreading disharmony, attempt to murder and attack on police personnel along with his associates.
He was arrested from Punjab’s Moga in April last year after a month-long hunt. His detention, which was scheduled to end on July 24, was extended by a year on June 3, a day before the counting for the Lok Sabha elections.
