GUWAHATI: A multi-layer security ring has been thrown around Assam’s Dibrugarh jail, where Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh and nine of his aides are lodged.
The entire jail complex has been kept out of bounds of the general public. Several high-mast lights have been installed and there is round-the-clock CCTV surveillance.
The augmentation of security started ahead of the arrival of Amritpal’s nine aides – all of them NSA detainees. The police invoked NSA also against Amritpal. They are the only Sikh inmates of the Dibrugarh jail which is Assam’s second oldest prison built in 1857.
The police have not yet issued any statement but a senior government official said there are no security concerns.
“Amritpal and the others (his aides) have been lodged at the Dibrugarh jail based on the request of Punjab government. All of them have been kept within the same campus,” the official told this newspaper requesting anonymity.
“We have updated the security measures. The entire jail is under CCTV surveillance. The CCTVs have been also upgraded,” the official said.
He said security had been augmented, both inside and outside the jail.
“We recently conducted a security review meeting. We don’t have any security-related concerns,” the official added.
Amritpal Singh was arrested in Rode village of Punjab’s Moga district on Sunday morning after police personnel surrounded him, leaving him with no way to escape, a senior Punjab Police official said here.
At around 2:45 pm on Sunday, the radical preacher was brought to Dibrugarh in a special aircraft.
He was immediately taken to the Dibrugarh jail in a convoy of vehicles under tight security.