Jailed Amritpal Singh, Engineer Rashid To Take Oath As Lok Sabha Members Today

Khalistan supporter and preacher Amritpal Singh and radical Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid will take oath as members of Lok Sabha today. Both of them have been in jail over alleged anti-national activities under the National Security Act (NSA).

Engineer Rashid is locked up in Delhi's Tihar jail, while Amritpal Singh has been kept in Assam's Dibrugarh district prison.

They registered victories with thumping margins as independent candidates. Amritpal won from Punjab's Khandoor Sahib seat and Engineer bagged the Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir.

Amitpal Singh and Engineer Rashid got special parole from the court to take oath as members of the 18th Lok Sabha. They were absent on June 24 and 25 when other winning candidates sworn in.

The court granted a two-hour relaxation to Engineer Rashid for taking oath, excluding the travel time.

While Singh will be flown from Assam to Delhi, and back, so he got a four-day custody parole by the court.

The court has allowed parole with conditions. Both accused can not make any public statement. The same condition also is for their family members and close aides, to avoid public gatherings.

While Singh, a Khalistani sympathiser who heads the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit, has been allowed to meet his family in Delhi, Rashid's family can only attend his oath taking.

The parole for Rashid, who has been in jail since 2019 after his arrest in 2017, was granted by a court in Delhi and that of Singh by the district magistrate of Amritsar from where he was arrested in April 2023 for barging into a police station in February.