Singh and engineer Rashid may take the oath on Saturday.
New Delhi:
Radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who was elected MP from the Khadoor Sahib seat in Punjab after contesting elections from a jail in Assam, has been granted four days' parole, starting Friday, to take oath.
Singh, who is lodged in Dibrugarh jail in Assam under the National Security Act, had written to the Punjab government on June 11 seeking temporary release so that he could be sworn in. The state government had sent a request to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and the decision on parole was taken on that basis.
Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said on Wednesday: “Amritpal Singh has been granted conditional release for four days or less from July 5, subject to certain conditions. The Superintendent of Jail, Dibrugarh, has been informed about this.”
After getting the nod from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid, who is in jail in the 2017 Jammu and Kashmir terror financing case, will be sworn in as MP from Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday. Sources said both Singh and Rashid are likely to take oath in the Speaker’s chamber on Saturday after getting the go-ahead from the government and agencies concerned.
However, Singh's lawyer and his family say they have no information about the date of the swearing-in ceremony.
The preacher, who heads the political outfit 'Waris Punjab De', contested the Lok Sabha elections as an independent and defeated Kulbir Singh Zira of the Congress by a margin of nearly 200,000 votes.
The MP, who says he was inspired by Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, has been named in several cases related to mischief-making, attempt to murder and assault on police personnel, along with his accomplices.
He was arrested in Punjab's Moga in April last year after a months-long hunt. His detention, which was scheduled to end on July 24, was extended for a year on June 3, a day before the counting of the Lok Sabha elections.
