3 Hours After 3 Years: Punjab MP Amritpal Singh's Interim Bail Comes With 8 Conditions

Amritpal Singh, the Lok Sabha member from Punjab who has been jailed since 2023, will walk out of Assam's Dibrugarh prison this weekend and be taken to his home state, but this interim bail comes with a set of eight stringent terms.

The MP from Khadoor Sahib, who has faced allegations of stoking separatism, has been allowed to attend his grandmother Charan Kaur's cremation for three hours on Saturday, though it may be delayed due to the long travel from Assam to Punjab. He must stay in police custody and pay for the trip himself.

A court order with eight conditions bars him from speaking to the media, meeting anyone other than family, or going anywhere except his native house.

On Friday, the Amritsar district and sessions court, where a specific case against him is being heard, allowed the Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) chief to join the cremation on November 14 "in police custody with high security for 3 hours only".

Amritpal Singh has been held in Assam's Dibrugarh Central Jail for more than three-and-a-half years. The court said Amritpal Singh's request to attend his grandmother's last rites was "quite natural and genuine". However, it said it had taken into account "the law and order situation of the State, security of the State and maintenance of public order of the State".

Conditions For Amritpal Singh's Bail

"It is made clear that since the permission has been granted upon humanitarian grounds permitting the applicant to participate in the last rites of his grandmother, as such it shall be subject to following conditions," the order said.

Under the conditions, Amritpal Singh "will not visit anywhere else except his native house" at Jallupur Khera village in Amritsar district's Baba Bakala Sahib tehsil.

He "will not contact any prosecution witness connected with the criminal cases pending against him."

He cannot address the media or a public gathering. He "will not meet or speak or communicate with any public person except his family members," and "will not interact with any Print/Social/Electronic media."

The order further says he "should not directly or indirectly do any act or activity which can prejudice the law and order situation of the State".

He must "strictly abide by instructions issued by administrative authorities or police in case of any breach of peace or any other situation arises".

The eighth condition says the "entire expenses towards the transportation/his visit to the native place and back to the jail along with the police escort" will be paid by Amritpal Singh.

The court refused to let him be present for the collection of his grandmother's ashes the day after the cremation, noting that "elder persons of applicant are present in the family". He can, however, join ceremonies scheduled for November 15 and November 17 by video-conferencing arranged by the jail authorities.

The same court gave his uncle Harjit Singh three days of interim bail and his close aide Sukhmandeep Singh two days.

Amritpal Singh's lawyers had asked the court to weigh both legal and humanitarian considerations. They sought temporary release for him and other detained family members so they could attend the last rites.

Charan Kaur died last Sunday at the age of 84. The family's counsel and Amritpal Singh's father, Tarsem Singh, had said she would not be cremated until he was allowed to attend. The family had earlier expressed anguish after a court-permitted 10-minute video call from Dibrugarh jail could not be arranged.

On Friday, Tarsem Singh said in a video message that the cremation was unlikely to take place on Saturday. He said bringing his son from Dibrugarh could take time, and he asked supporters not to rush to Amritsar.

Just Months Ahead Of Polls

If Amritpal Singh reaches Punjab as the court ordered, it will be his first public appearance since his arrest in 2023. Amritpal Singh won the Khadoor Sahib seat as an independent in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections while in jail, defeating Congress candidate Kulbir Singh Zira. His brief return to Punjab comes ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, in which his outfit has big plans of fielding candidates across the state. 

He was arrested on April 23, 2023, at Rode village in Moga district. The arrest followed a police crackdown on his outfit Waris Punjab De after the February 2023 Ajnala incident, when his supporters entered the Ajnala police station demanding the release of his associate Lovepreet Singh Toofan.

He was then moved to Dibrugarh Central Jail along with several associates and detained under the National Security Act (NSA). Police told the government's advisory board in 2023 that his speeches focused on creating "Khalistan" through the secession of Punjab from India, which they said undermined the country's sovereignty. Police also accused him of promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, place of birth and language. The grounds for his third successive NSA detention order, issued in April 2025, said Amritpal Singh had been found "conspiring with anti-national elements, notorious and dreaded gangsters and terrorists". The Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed his challenge to that order in April 2026.

After his NSA detention ended that month, he stayed in custody after he was formally arrested in the Ajnala case.