'Unlikely To Find Community Support': Why Amritpal Singh's Aides Are Being Lodged At Assam's Dibrugarh Jail
Seven of Amritpal Singh's close aides, including his uncle Harjeet Singh, have been slapped with the stringent NSA and shifted to Assam's high-security Dibrugarh Central Jail.
Even as the search for Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh continues, seven of his close aides, including his uncle Harjeet Singh, have been slapped with the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and shifted to Assam's high-security Dibrugarh Central Jail. While there has been no word from the government on why they were flown all the way from Punjab to Assam, a highly-placed source told ABP Live that the radical preacher's aides were unlikely to find community support at the high-security Dibrugarh jail.
The source said Dibrugarh jail has enough experience of handling hardline prisoners. "There are three jails in India which have the experience of handling any kind of situation and any prisoner and the Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam and Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh Central Jail are two of them," he said on condition of anonimity.
He also said the security arrangements in Dibrugarh jail are such that it would be difficult for any prisoner to escape.
"Since the 1990s, several top-ranked and hardcore United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) militants have been imprisoned in the Dibrugarh Central Jail," he said.
"Another reason is, there are very few people from the particular community in this prison who would lend them support to escape, whether morale or logistic. I have several years of experience of the prisons in Assam and according to me, the Dibrugarh jail is one of the best to hold such prisoners from a security point of view," the source further said.
While four aides of Amritpal Singh were brought to the prison by a 27-member Punjab Police team in a special Indian Air Force aircraft on Sunday morning, another team arrived at the Dibrugarh Central Jail on Tuesday with Harjeet Singh, the uncle of the fugitive pro-Khalistani leader.
While addressing the media on Wednesday, Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner (DC) Biswajit Pegu said, "Seven people have been brought from Punjab and they have been booked under the National Security Act (NSA) and all the proceedings would take place according to the NSA."
"We have made multi-tier security arrangements in and around the Dibrugarh Central Jail. The decision to shift them to Dibrugarh jail was taken by the Centre as well as the state governments," DC Pegu said.
The other aides of Amritpal Singh currently lodged in Dibrugarh Central Jail are Daljit Singh Kalsi, who was the financier of 'Waris Punjab De'. The other three are Bhagwant Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Pradhanmantri Bajeka.
On Tuesday, Punjab Police released seven photographs of Amritpal Singh in different attires, saying he might have changed his appearance.
Punjab IGP Sukhchain Singh Gill said that after fleeing his village, Singh visited a gurudwara in Jalandhar district and changed his clothes. He also said that Singh switched from a car to motorcycle to escape arrest by police.
The motorcycle on which Amritpal Singh reportedly fled from the gurudwara was recovered on Wednesday. The vehicle was reportedly found abandoned in Darapur village, which is some 60 kilometres from Nanagal Ambian.
The Punjab Police on Saturday launched a major crackdown against Amritpal and members of his outfit Waris Punjab De. A non-bailable warrant has also been issued against the Khalistan sympathiser and the stringent National Security Act (NSA) has been invoked against him.
The radical preacher, however, gave the police the slip when his cavalcade was intercepted in Jalandhar district.
(The writer is a senior independent journalist covering the Northeast)
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