Amritpal Singh fails to take oath as Khadoor Sahib MP

Chandigarh, June 25

Khadoor Sahib MP-elect Amritpal Singh could not take oath as a member of Parliament as he is in jail in Assam, detained under the National Security Act.

Twelve other MPs-elect from Punjab were administered oath in Parliament on Tuesday. Punjab has 13 Lok Sabha constituencies.

After the Congress’s Gurjeet Singh Aujla took oath, Singh’s name was called out but he was not present.

Similarly, Engineer Rashid, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Baramulla and is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in a case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), could not take the oath on Monday.

Singh wrote to the Punjab government on June 11, seeking temporary release from detention to take oath as an MP, according to his counsel.

Tarsem Singh, his father, said the family had no information on the government’s response to the letter.

Singh, the chief of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ outfit, is currently lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail along with nine associates under the NSA.

He had contested the Lok Sabha election as an independent and polled 4,04,430 votes. He defeated Congress candidate Kulbir Singh Zira by a margin of 1,97,120 votes.

Recently, Singh’s detention was extended by a year from April 23. The Punjab government had issued the extension order on June 3, a day before the Lok Sabha election results came out.