Punjab moves fresh plea to arrest Amritpal in Assam, retain him in Dibrugarh jail

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By: Express News Service4 min readApr 17, 2026 09:03 AM IST Punjab government has moved the High Court seeking permission to re-arrest him in Assam before his NSA detention ends. (File Photo) Make us preferred source on Google Whatsapp twitter Facebook Reddit PRINT The Punjab government on Thursday moved an urgent plea before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking permission to arrest Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh and continue with his incarceration at Dibrugarh jail in Assam after his detention under the National Security Act (NSA) comes to end on April 22. The fresh plea has been filed by the Amritsar Rural Senior Superintendent of Police and came on a day the high court, in a separate order, dismissed Amritpal’s plea, challenging the third detention order under the NSA issued by the Punjab government in April last year. A bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry took up the fresh plea. Amritpal’s counsel, Iman Singh Khara, said the high court will hear the Punjab government’s plea on Friday. In the latest petition, a counsel for the Punjab government informed the bench that Amritpal’s preventive detention was set to lapse on April 22 and it intended to execute a fresh arrest in Assam itself, citing intelligence inputs and security considerations. The government submitted that it did not want Amritpal to be brought back to Punjab and proposed that he remain lodged in Dibrugarh. It further sought permission to conduct the entire judicial proceedings from the beginning, including the production of accused after arrest, remand, presentation of chargesheet, through video conferencing. “The grounds mentioned in the writ petition, which reveal the anti-national, nefarious activities of Amritpal Singh and his supporters, which may become a reason for threat to the interest of the security of the state, law and order situation, and cause prejudice to the public order of the state,” read the plea. At the outset, the counsel for Punjab told the bench that Amritpal would be released from preventive detention on April 23 and sought the court’s intervention to enable his immediate re-arrest to ensure continuity of custody. It added that the Assam government has issued a no-objection, as per the provisions of the Transfer of Prisoners Act, 1952, read with the Transfer of the Prisoners Act, 2025. However, the bench questioned the State over its failure to formally arrest Amritpal in a case where the investigation was stated to be complete. It asked why, despite him being in custody, the procedural requirement of arrest had not been carried out. The court observed that once an investigation reaches its logical conclusion, the accused ought to be formally arrested in the case concerned. The State responded that although the investigation in the FIR had been completed, Amritpal had not yet been formally arrested in that case. It reiterated that his presence in Punjab could trigger serious law and order issues and referred to his alleged attempts to propagate a separatist narrative. The bench further pressed the State on the legal basis for retaining or transferring an undertrial prisoner outside the state, asking under what statutory framework such a decision would be taken and which authority would record reasons for it. It sought clarity on the enabling provisions governing inter-state transfer of prisoners. During the hearing, reference was made to the Transfer of Prisoners Act, 1950, and relevant Supreme Court rulings. The State argued that constitutional courts have the power under Article 226 to order such transfers in appropriate cases, even in the absence of explicit statutory backing. Counsel appearing for Amritpal said no advance copy of the petition had been supplied and sought time to obtain instructions. The court granted a short adjournment and directed the State to furnish the necessary documents to the opposing counsel. Taking note of the urgency flagged by the State, which said it planned to execute the arrest on April 22, the bench listed the matter for further hearing on Friday. Amritpal has been under preventive detention since April 2023 and is currently lodged in Dibrugarh Central Jail. With the NSA detention set to end on April 23, the State has approached the High Court seeking directions to ensure his continued custody through a fresh arrest in Assam. Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram