Punjab Police team in Assam for transfer of 7 aides of Amriptal

Dibrugarh (Assam), Mar 17 (PTI) A 25-member team of Punjab Police has been stationed in Assam's Dibrugarh for the past two days to facilitate the transfer of radical preacher Amritpal Singh's seven aides who have been imprisoned along with the ‘Waris de Punjab’ leader here for nearly two years, officials said.

    The date of the transfer, however, has not been officially disclosed but could be within the next two to three days, the officials added.
    Ten members of the outfit, including Amritpal who is an Independent MP, and one of his uncles, have been housed in the Dibrugarh Central Jail since 2023 after they were arrested under the National Security Act (NSA) from different parts of Punjab following a crackdown on the outfit.

    The Punjab Police team, led by Superintendent of Police Harinder Singh Gill, was engaged in completing the legal formalities in Dibrugarh, a town in eastern Assam, to proceed with the transfer, the officials said.

    The detainees set for transfer are Daljit Singh Kalsi, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala, Harjit Singh, Bhagwant Singh alias Pradhan Mantri Bajeke, Basant Singh and Gurinderpal Singh.

    Amritpal Singh, along with Papalpreet Singh and Varinder Singh Johal, will continue to be held under NSA here, with their detention scheduled to expire in June 2025.

    The radical preacher had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as an Independent candidate and won from the Khadoor Sahib seat in Punjab.
    His seven aides are being taken back after the Punjab government decided not to reinvoke the NSA at the end of their detention period, Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav had said on Sunday.

    They will be formally arrested in the 2023 Ajnala police station attack incident and face the law, he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)