Another NSA detainee Kulwant Rauke to contest Barnala bypoll, announces his brother

Rauke's father Charhat Singh was also picked up by police on March 25, 1993, during Punjab's militancy period and he never returned home.

National Security Act (NSA) detainee Kulwant Singh Rauke. (Express Photo)

Lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail along with pro-Khalistan preacher Amritpal Singh, another detainee under the National Security Act (NSA) Kulwant Singh Rauke will now contest the Barnala Assembly bypoll, said his brother Maha Singh on Friday.

Contesting from jail, Amritpal won the recently concluded Lok Sabha election from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib by a huge margin.

His another accomplice Bhagwant Singh Pardhan Mantri Bajeke had earlier this week announced to contest the bypoll from Gidderbaha seat of Muktsar district, as announced by his minor son.

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The bypoll to Barnala seat has been necessitated after AAP’s incumbent Barnala MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer won Lok Sabha polls from Sangrur.

Maha Singh said, “I spoke to my brother on Friday on phone. He has decided to contest the Barnala bypoll while being lodged in jail. We will fully support him.”

Rauke (38), from Rauke Kalan village of Moga district, is a clerk with Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). He was held by Punjab Police from his house during the statewide crackdown on the members of Amritpal Singh’s Waris Punjab De for allegedly taking part in radical activities.

Rauke’s father Charhat Singh was also picked up by police on March 25, 1993, during Punjab’s militancy period and he never returned home. “Till date we do not know if he was killed in a fake encounter or if he is still alive. We do not have any proof of his death. He was taken by police and never came back,” Maha Singh, adding that their father was also lodged in jail under the NSA in 1987.

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“He was a Youth Akali Dal leader and was detained for supporting Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s pro-Khalistan movement in Punjab. Later, he also became the sarpanch of our village and on March 25, 1993, police took him away forcefully from our home. We do not know what happened to him as we never recovered his body,” he said.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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