HC dismisses habeas corpus plea related to radical Amritpal Singh

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday dismissed as infructuous a plea filed last month claiming that radical preacher Amritpal Singh was in the “illegal custody” of police, a day after his arrest in Punjab’s Moga district.
Imaan Singh Khara, the legal advisor of Amritpal Singh and his outfit ‘Waris Punjab De’, had moved the habeas corpus plea on 19 March, seeking the production of the preacher from alleged police custody. In earlier court hearings, the state of Punjab maintained that Amritpal Singh had neither been detained nor arrested. The court had even asked the petitioner to show evidence that the radical preacher was in illegal custody.
The Punjab Police arrested Amritpal Singh in Rode village in Moga district early Sunday, ending an over a month-long manhunt against the radical preacher who styled himself after slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Khara told reporters after the hearing that as Amritpal Singh has now been detained under the National Security Act (NSA) and sent to the Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam on 23 April, the petition has been dismissed as infructuous.
He and his associates were booked under several criminal cases related to spreading disharmony among classes, an attempt to murder, an attack on police personnel, and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duty by public servants. The bench of Justice N. S. Shekhawat has fixed 1 May as the next date in the matter of pleas filed by relatives of Amritpal Singh’s associates: Daljit Singh Kalsi, Gurmit Singh, Kulwant Singh, Varinder Singh Fauji, Bhagwant Singh Pardhanmantri Bajeke, and Basant Singh.
The relatives of the NSA detainees had sought the quashing of detention orders. Simranjit Singh, the counsel for Kalsi’s wife, has submitted that they want to file an amended petition. He said that the petitioner would now challenge the grounds of the detention orders.
In the previous hearing in the matter, the Punjab government informed the high court that Daljit Singh Kalsi, a close associate of Amritpal Singh, was supporting the preacher in professing radical ideology and also abetting to wage a war against the state for a separate nation, Khalistan.
The state government had also told the court that Sarabjit Singh Kalsi, alias Daljit Singh Kalsi, had been detained under the NSA after following due
process of law.