Punjab wants Amritpal lodged in Assam jail even after NSA expires, cites security

Chandigarh: Citing "security and maintenance of law and order", the Punjab govt has written to the Union home ministry seeking to keep Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh lodged in Dibrugarh central jail, Assam, even after his detention under the National Security Act (NSA) ends on April 22.Sources said the state govt has asked the Union home secretary to obtain Assam govt's consent to lodge him in Dibrugarh jail under provisions of the Transfer of Prisoners Act, 1952, read with the Punjab Amendment Act, 2025, and convey a decision at the earliest for further action as per law.Amritpal was initially booked in the Feb 24, 2023, FIR registered at Ajnala police station after he and his associates stormed the police station in Amritsar to free a jailed aide. He was arrested on April 23, 2023, after being on the run for over a month following a Punjab Police crackdown, and has since been lodged in Dibrugarh jail under NSA. His detention was extended in April 2024 and again in April 2025.Nine of his aides earlier lodged with him in Dibrugarh have since been brought back to Punjab after their NSA detention was not extended.Sources said the Punjab home department, in its April 11 communication to MHA, cited reports from the Punjab DGP and Amritsar (rural) SSP stating that Amritpal's preventive detention will expire on April 22 and he will be re-arrested on April 23 upon release.The SSP is learnt to have recommended that he be kept in Dibrugarh jail in the interest of state security and public order. The Punjab home department, after examining intelligence inputs and reports, said it was of the considered view that Amritpal should continue to be lodged outside Punjab.