Man seeks Centre’s intervention to bring jailed son back from Pak

The father of the Fazilka farmer, who had inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan and sentenced there to one-month jail, has urged the Centre to intervene and bring his son back to India.

Amritpal Singh had inadvertently ended up on the other side of the border on June 21. He had gone to tend his fields located across the barbed wire near the Rana Border Outpost.

He was sentenced to one-month jail, along with a penalty of Rs 50,000, by a Kasur court in Pakistan for illegally entering the country. In case he fails to pay the penalty, he would have to undergo an additional imprisonment of 15 days.

The court has also directed the Ministry of Interior Secretary, Islamabad, to make arrangements for the deportation of Amritpal to India after the completion of his sentence, according to documents available with The Tribune.

In a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Amritpal’s father Jugraj Singh pleaded that his son could only be deported after the intervention of the Centre.

Jugraj said if formalities of timely deportation were not completed, Amritpal would have to stay in the jail even after the completion of his sentence. Jugraj expressed apprehension that after the completion of the punishment, Amritpal could be manhandled in the jail and might end up meeting the fate of Sarabjit Singh, who was beaten to death in Pakistan’s Kot Lakhpat jail in 2013. Sarabjit Singh had also crossed over to Pakistan in 1990 from the Punjab border. Initially, he was charged with illegally crossing over the border. Later, he was convicted for terrorism and espionage, with a Pakistan court giving him death sentence.

He died in the jail while on death row.