Gurpreet Singh :- An Amritsar court on Thursday framed charges against Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh in connection with the February 2023 attack on the Ajnala police station. The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Parinder Singh dropped charges related to the Arms Act and destruction of evidence after hearing arguments presented by defence counsel Rituraj Sandhu, who maintained that no weapons had been recovered from the accused.
However, the court proceeded to frame charges against Amritpal Singh under several serious sections, including attempt to murder, causing grievous hurt, obstructing public servants from performing official duties, criminal conspiracy, damaging public property, leading an unlawful assembly and issuing death threats.
During the proceedings, the defence argued that the police had wrongly invoked provisions related to illegal possession of arms and destruction of evidence. The court, after considering the submissions, excluded those charges while retaining the remaining allegations.
The case pertains to the incident in February 2023 when Amritpal Singh and his supporters allegedly stormed the Ajnala police station to pressure authorities for the release of his associate Lovepreet Toofan, who had been arrested in an attempt-to-murder case. The incident had triggered a major crackdown by Punjab Police across the state.
Amritpal Singh is currently lodged in Dibrugarh Jail in Assam and continues to remain behind bars even after the expiry of his detention period under the National Security Act (NSA). The next hearing in the matter has been scheduled for May 16.
