A CORRESPONDENT
DIBRUGARH: Papalpreet Singh, a close aide of fugitive radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh, was brought to Dibrugarh jail on Tuesday. Singh was arrested on Monday from Kathu Nangal area of Punjab. A team of Punjab police reached Dibrugarh’s Mohanbari airport with arrested Papalpreet this morning and were received by Assam police. He was then taken to Dibrugarh central jail under tight security.
Eight other associates of Amrtipal, including his uncle Harjeet Singh, were earlier lodged in Dibrugarh central jail. With Papalpreet, the total number of detainees of Waris Punjab De outfit in the jail has risen to nine. All of them have been arrested under the National Security Act (NSA).
Meanwhile, Assam police have maintained a silence on bringing Amritpal’s aides to Dibrugarh jail. Earlier, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that it was an exercise between the police teams of two states. A multi-tier security was put in place in Dibrugarh jail for the Waris Punjab De outfit members.
A group of lawyers from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), who met the ‘Waris Punjab De’ outfit members in the Central jail in Dibrugarh, have said they will contest their case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Eight members of the outfit have been lodged in the jail, who were apprehended during a Punjab Police crackdown on Sikh radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates.
The lawyers’ panel that met the inmates on Monday included SGPC member and advocate Bhagwant Singh Sialka, counsel Mandeep Singh Sidhu, who is a brother of late Deep Sidhu, founder of Waris Punjab De, and advocate Rohit Sharma. Advocate Sialka said that the SGPC legal team had received support in submitting an application to the authority of the Dibrugarh jail to meet the eight NSA detainees from the District Legal Services Authority, the Dibrugarh Bar Association, and local advocates.
Advocate Mandeep Singh said, “Under the NSA, all detainees have access to their fundamental right as prisoners. They are housed collectively and have access to publications and television in the prison. They have a positive attitude.” “They don’t have enough clothes. Otherwise, they have the other facilities other prisoners should have,” according to Bhagwant Singh Sialka. The SGPC will now contest their imprisonment in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he added. (IANS)