Amritpal aide Daljit Kalsi's wife files habeas corpus plea

NEW DELHI: Actor Sarabjit Singh alias Daljit Kalsi's wife has filed a habeas corpus petition at the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking his release from "illegal custody" in Assam. In her petition, Narinder Kaur sought to quash the detention order passed by the district magistrate at the instance of the Punjab government under the National Security Act, 1980.

The bench of Justice N S Shekhawat, hearing the matter was adjourned for March 28, when the court is set to hear the habeas corpus plea seeking Amritpal's production. Kalsi is one of the five associates of self-styled Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh arrested as part of the Punjab Police's crackdown on Waris Punjab De.

Kaur, through her counsels, Simranjit Singh and Brijinder Singh, submitted that her husband is kept at Assam's Dibrugarh in the "illegal custody" without following the due process of law and procedure before the competent judicial court. "Daljit Kalsi was arrested on Sunday (March 19) at around 1.15 pm from his residence in Gurgaon by the Punjab Police without informing any ground of arrest. The petitioner learned about the arrest later through social media and the newspaper that the government of Punjab has arrested her husband under the National Security Act and sent to Dibrugarh, Assam," the petition said.

The petition further said that the NSA had to be exercised by the executive with extreme care because it is a process to detain a person without recourse to ordinary law of the land and Article 21 of the Constitution of India clearly states that authority is under obligation to pass detention order accordingly to procedure established by law and with ensure that the constitutional safeguards have been followed. Kaur, in her petition claimed that in the present case, Punjab government has violated and ignored the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in a case titled as "Sarabjit Singh Mokha Versus The District Magistrate, Jabalpur and others" and "State of Punjab Versus Sukhpal Singh AIR 231, 1989 SC R and detenue has been shifted to outside at Dibrugarh Assam.

It further said that the sponsoring and recommending authorities under the pressure of Chief Minister of Punjab have not placed the correct facts and material in the case. "The step taken by the respondents is very harassing and abuse of process of law. If it is to be supposed that there is an apprehension of breach of peace in the State, the State has power to arrest any person under Section 107/151 Cr.P.C. But State knowingly and willfully did not apply the same,' it said.

Kaur in her petition claimed that the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab is taking revenge by adding Daljit Kalsi's name in the case as he has recently done campaigning in Mann's constituency in favour of sitting Member of Parliament and president of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar against the wishes of the Chief Minister. "The Chief Minister has lost his Parliamentary seat in bye-election held in 2022 and to take revenge his name is added in the present case," the petition said.

It further said that till date, no official information has been supplied to the family for how many days the detenue is ordered to be kept in NSA custody. "It is pertinent to mention that all the five people arrested by the Punjab Police under the NSA Act had no kind of criminal record," she stated.