2 men who helped Amritpal escape detained, say police

Punjab Police on Friday detained two people who allegedly accompanied radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh when he escaped a police operation two weeks ago, and expanded its efforts to nab the absconding Khalistan sympathiser.

The developments came days after the Waris Punjab De chief was spottedby a police party of Counter Intelligence Wingin Hoshiarpur on Tuesday evening. Singh has since released one video and an audio clip — both on social media and neither authenticated or dated — where he called on the Sikh clergy to call a holy conclave or Sarbat Khalsa to protest the police crackdown, and said he had no plans to surrender.

Police identified the two arrested men as Joga Singh of Sahnewal town of Ludhiana district and Charanjit Singh.

A police officer involved in the probe said that Charanjit Singh was driving the Innova car used by Singh when he re-entered Punjab. “Most probably they entered the same day. We are probing who assisted them to enter Punjab and from where they entered,” said the officer.

Other than Joga Singh and Charanjit Singh, there was a third accomplice in the car, Pappalpreet Singh, said the officer cited above.

The crackdown on Singh and his supporters began on March 18 when a police cavalcade intercepted Singh’s car near Mehatpur town when he was on his way to Bathinda to address a gathering. But Singh changed cars and managed to mount a dramatic escape on a motorcycle, halting for a short while at a local gurdwara before getting away with the help of accomplices.

Police detained 360 people, including eight alleged associates of Singh who were booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and sent to Assam for interrogation. Singh was also booked under NSA. On Friday, a police official said that police had released 348 of the 360 people taken into preventive custody.

A police official said that Joga Singh bought a new phone and SIM card somewhere in Ludhiana on March 28 – when Singh was on the run. Police have also confiscated CCTV footage from a mobile phone store where Joga Singh could be allegedly seen purchasing a new phone, said the official.

“Amritpal made few calls by using this mobile phone. Interestingly, when they all fled from Hoshiarpur village, the location on Joga’s mobile phone was deliberately kept on in order to divert the police’s attention as both Papalpreet and Amritpal changed their vehicle midway during the chase and shifted into a Swift car,” the official said.

“We are also gathering technical details about the calls made from Joga’s phone,”added the official.

Police on Friday launched special search operations in different deras across Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts. The radical preacher and his followers are facing nine first information reports across Punjab involving allegations of spreading communal disharmony, attempt to murder and attacking policemen. The most prominent among them is related to the February 23 siege by thousands of Singh’s supporters of a police station in Ajnala town, which forced the state government to free a key aide who was accused of abduction.

In another development, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the apex gurdwara body, took out a procession on Friday in a bid to press the Punjab government to release “innocent Sikh youths” arrested during a police crackdown on radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his outfit Waris Punjab De.

The SGPC also sought from the government to revoke the National Security Act (NSA) slapped against a few persons during the police action.