New Delhi: Radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who won the Lok Sabha election contesting from jail as an Independent candidate, has been granted parole for four days, from Friday, to take the oath of office.
Amritpal, lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, beat Congress party’s Kulbir Singh Zira by 1.97 lakh votes last month to be elected as Lok Sabha MP from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib constituency.
The chief of Waris Punjab De (WPD) outfit had written to the Punjab Government on June 11, asking to be released from prison temporarily so that he could be sworn in as MP.
The state government sent an application to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, based on which the parole decision was taken.
“Amritpal Singh has been granted parole for 4 days or less from July 5 with certain conditions, about which the jail superintendent, Dibrugarh, has been informed,” Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said on Wednesday.
Amritpal, who is inspired by Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested from Punjab’s Moga in April 2023 after being on the run for a month. His detention, scheduled to end on July 24, was extended by a year on June 3, a day before counting of votes took place.
Another prisoner who won the election will also be sworn in during the weekend.
Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid, who is in jail in the 2017 Jammu & Kashmir terror funding case, got the nod to take oath from the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Rashid, who beat former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah in Baramulla by over 2 lakh votes, has been lodged in Tihar jail since August 9, 2019.
Both he and Amritpal are likely to be administered the oath in the Speaker’s room on Saturday, reported NDTV.
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