Chandigarh, Jul 27, 2023: As per media reports the Centre on Wednesday told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it had no document to establish Avtar Singh Khanda’s Indian citizenship.
Allegedly a Khalistani sympathiser, Khanda had died at a hospital in Birmingham.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has sought a response from the Centre and the state government on a petition filed by the sister of Avtar Singh, alias Khanda, a Khalistani sympathiser, to bring back his body from the UK for performing his last rites here.
Khanda had earlier been booked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as a primary suspect for the attack on the Indian High Commission in London in March. He died in Birmingham on June 15.
After hearing a plea filed by his sister Jaspreet Kaur, the Bench of Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj had issued a notice to the Centre and the state government seeking a reply on the issue.
Jaspreet Kaur has sought directions to grant permission for bringing the body of her brother from the UK, where it is lying in a mortuary for a postmortem and other investigations, to their hometown Moga for the last rites.
