HT Correspondent
DIBRUGARH, June 30:Â Dibrugarh deputy commissioner Biswajit Pegu has refuted claims made by Kirandeep Kaur, the wife of Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh, that Amritpal is on a hunger strike in Dibrugarh Central Jail. Amritpal Singh, along with ten other members of Waris Punjab De, is currently held in Dibrugarh Jail under the National Security Act (NSA) since April 23.
On Friday, Dibrugarh DC Biswajit Pegu and SP Shwetank Mishra visited the jail to assess the situation. After their visit, the deputy commissioner dismissed reports of a hunger strike by the Waris Punjab De members inside the jail.
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Addressing reporters, the deputy commissioner stated, “There is no hunger strike inside the jail. We met them and found that their main grievance was that they were not allowed access to phone calls. We have decided that they will be allowed to make one phone call per week. Today, in our presence, Amritpal Singh called his wife over the phone and spoke to her. There was only one food complaint, which has been resolved.”
According to Kirandeep Kaur, during her visit to Dibrugarh Jail on June 29 to meet her husband, she learned about the hunger strike staged by Amritpal and his associates to protest the alleged lack of facilities in the jail.
Kaur claimed that the detainees under the NSA were not granted permission to make phone calls and were being served poor-quality food. She also expressed concern that the person in charge of cooking used tobacco, which goes against the Sikh religious code, as tobacco was found in the food. Kaur further mentioned the language barrier, as there is no interpreter in the jail, causing difficulties for the Waris Punjab De members to communicate with the prison staff and others.
Amritpal Singh’s advocate, Simranjit Singh, stated over the phone, “According to the Punjab Jail manual, a prisoner is allowed to make phone calls to family members twice a week. However, they are not provided with telephone facilities in Dibrugarh Jail, even though the cases against them are registered in Punjab. The fault does not lie with the Assam government, as they have not received the necessary communication from the Punjab government.”
