Crackdown on Amritpal Singh: HC defers hearing till April 24

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday deferred hearing to April 24 on a plea seeking production of Amritpal Singh, the radical Sikh preacher on the run, as the petitioner could not produce anything to substantiate his claims that he was in the custody of Punjab Police.

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Imann Singh Khara, the legal adviser to Waris Punjab De, filed the plea on March 19, seeking the release of Amritpal Singh.

On March 18, Punjab Police had launched a search for Amritpal in the Amritsar-Jalandhar area. The radical Sikh preacher, against whom the National Security Act (NSA) has been invoked, remains at large since his escape from the Mehatpur market in Jalandhar.

As the hearing began on Wednesday, the bench of justice NS Shekhawat asked the petitioner’s counsel whether an affidavit had been filed giving details about the place of detention of Amritpal Singh. The counsel replied in the negative and told the court that the Government of India has been apprised of the same. The court deferred the hearing for April 24, asking the petitioner to provide details. The judge observed that they were to provide details to court not to the central government.

On the last date of hearing on March 29, the court had deferred the hearing till April 12 as the state government maintained its stand that Amritpal has neither been arrested nor detained, and the petitioner’s side failed to submit details of where they suspect the Waris Punjab De chief has been kept in illegal detention.

During the last hearing, a verbal statement was made by the petitioner’s counsel that they had video evidence of Amritpal’s presence at Shahkot on March 18 when the manhunt was launched. However, they failed to produce any evidence. In view of this, the court had deferred the hearing for April 12. However, the petitioner again failed to submit in writing details about the place of detention.