Pro-Khalistani separatist Amritpal Singh to take oath as MP on July 5

Chandigarh, July 3 (IANS) Pro-Khalistani separatist and MP-elect Amritpal Singh, who is detained under the National Security Act (NSA) in Assam's Dibrugarh jail, has been granted parole and will take oath as a member of Parliament on July 5, the day another jailed MP-elect, Engineer Rashid, will also be sworn in.  

Faridkot MP Sarabjit Singh Khalsa told the media on Wednesday that he met Speaker Om Birla at his residence in Delhi on Wednesday morning and he agreed to administer the oath to Amritpal Singh at his chamber in the Parliament.

Both Amritpal Singh and Khalsa won the Lok Sabha polls as Independents.

The Khadoor Sahib MP-elect was given parole for four days by the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar from July 5.

"The parole will be allowed only for oath-taking. The parole of up to four days is given to make sure that he can be flown in on any of these four days if the weather does not allow his transit," an official source said.

The Punjab Home Secretary had written to the Lok Sabha Speaker, forwarding Amritpal Singh’s plea that he should be allowed to take oath.

Official sources said the decision to grant permission to Amritpal Singh to take oath comes a day after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) gave its consent to jailed Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid, known as Engineer Rashid, to take oath as a Lok Sabha member on July 5.

Engineer Rashid is lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi in connection with a 2017 terror funding case. A Delhi court on Tuesday granted custody parole for two hours to him to take the oath as an MP.

Rashid won the Lok Sabha elections as an Independent candidate from the Baramulla constituency in Jammu and Kashmir by defeating his nearest rival and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah by a margin of more than 2 lakh votes.

Sikh radical Amritpal Singh, head of 'Waris Punjab De' and currently locked up in an Assam jail won the Khadoor Sahib seat by 197,120 votes over his nearest rival, Congress candidate Kulbir Singh Zira. In the Faridkot (reserved) seat, Khalsa, the son of one of the assassins of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, won by 70,053 votes over his nearest rival, Karamjit Singh Anmol of the AAP.

--IANS

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