Day after arrest, Papalpreet sent to Assam’s Dibrugarh jail
Papalpreet was accused of helping Amritpal escape police and was taken to Assam by a police team from Amritsar rural district.
A day after being arrested, Waris Punjab De head Amritpal Singh’s aide Papalpreet Singh was sent to Assam’s Dibrugarh jail. A police team of Amritsar rural district, led by deputy suprintendent of police (DSP) Sanjiv Thakur, took him from Amritsar airport to Assam on Tuesday.
Papalpreet (42), who was accused of helping Amritpal escape the police crackdown and accompanying the fugitive, was nabbed from the Kathunangal area of Ron Monday. He was detained under the National Security Act (NSA).
Soon after his arrest, Papalpreet was taken to Amritsar rural district police’s Mall Mandi office for questioning to ascertain Amritpal’s whereabouts.
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A senior police official, who didn’t wish to be named, said, “Papalpreet has disclosed how he and Amritpal managed to escape the police.” He, however, didn’t disclose the details citing that their operation to nab Amritpal was still on.
SSP (rural) Satinder Singh said, “Papalpreet has been sent to Dibrugarh jail.”
Outside Amritsar airport, Papalpreet said, “I am absolutely fine.” When asked by media about when he was arrested, he said, “Whatsoever has come to the fore is right. As per police, I was arrested on Monday.”
Sources said Papalpreet was taken to Assam through a Vistara Airlines fight. The flight landed at the Mohanbari airport in Dibrugarh around 11.30 am and he was immediately taken to Dibrugarh Central Jail.
At Mohanbari airport, replying to a media query if Amritpal would surrender, Papalpreet said, “It is upto him (Amritpal). I don’t know.” Replying to a question about his last meeting with Amritpal, he said, “We got separated on March 28 night.”
A police official said so far, it had come to the fore that Amritpal and Papalpreet were last together in Hoshiarpur. Before this, their moments were tracked in Delhi and Haryana, he added.
While on the run, Papalpreet was seen with the fugitive Khalistan leader in several photographs that surfaced after the duo escaped the dragnet cast for them by the state police.
The first batch of the four arrested members of the outfit were shifted to the Assam jail by the Punjab police on March 19.
On March 21, three others, including Amritpal’s uncle Harjit Singh, were detained under the NSA and taken to Dibrugarh.
Besides, Papalpreet and Harjit Singh, other members of the outfit lodged in the jail since last March are Daljeet Kalsi, Basant Singh, Gurmeet Singh Bhukanwala, Bhagwant Singh, alias ‘Pradhan Mantri’ Bajeke, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, Gurinder Pal Singh, and Varinder Singh.
Papalpreet is considered the most prominent among a string of aides who helped Amritpal, accused of stoking separatism, spreading communal disharmony and attacking policemen, mount a dramatic escape from Mehatpur town on March 18, and then seek shelter in a nearby gurdwara, before absconding again.
