Amritpal and aides pose a serious threat to Punjab CM Mann's life: Police

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab police have claimed that radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates detained under the National Security Act (NSA) are not only a serious threat to the law and order in the state but also to the life of chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
In support of their claim, the Punjab police have referred to some video clips of the Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh in which he is seen saying that the Punjab CM has been operating in a fashion that would ensure that he meets the same fate as the former chief minister, late Beant Singh, who was assassinated by a human bomb.
These assertions have been made by the state police before the Punjab and Haryana high court in an affidavit filed through Amritsar (Rural) SSP Charanjit Singh .
As per voluminous affidavits filed by the SSP, after the February 2023 Ajnala police station incident, Amritpal Singh was captured on videotape right outside the Ajnala police station insinuating that the Punjab CM was operating in a fashion that would ensure that he meets the same fate as former chief minister Beant Singh.
In the same video-clip, according to the SSP, Amritpal Singh can be seen and heard saying, "We warned CM Mann to not walk on the path of CM Beant Singh. CM Mann is still proceeding on the path earlier tread by CM Beant Singh. Dilawar acted as a human bomb and blew up CM Beant Singh. CM Mann has ensured that several such Dilawars have taken birth out of this present crowd today."

According to the Punjab police, the aforesaid inflammatory utterances made by Amritpal Singh, in presence of the petitioners had the tendency to mislead the youth of Punjab into, inter-alia, believing that action as human bomb like Dilawar Singh and assassinating a democratically elected chief minister of a state was a heroic deed.
"It was reasonably apprehended that Amritpal Singh, and his supporters were likely to commit serious illegalities against anyone who may express any thoughts contrary to his own radical and extreme thoughts, even in future. If he was to take law in his own hands and go about harming everyone who may not agree with his ideology, as he has done in recent past - a serious and adverse situation of law and order, maintenance of public order and security of the state was most likely to arise in the area/state," the Punjab police claimed in a detailed reply.
The reply by Punjab was filed in response to separate petitions filed by Sarabjeet Singh Kalsi and Gurmeet Singh Gill, alias Gurmeet Bhukkanwala, both close associates of Amritpal Singh, who like him have been detained under the NSA in Assam's Dibrugarh jail. Both Kalsi and Bhukkanwala have challenged their fresh detention orders passed by the Punjab govt in March this year. Punjab has claimed that it has enough fresh grounds to pass NSA detention orders of the petitioners.