Woman arrested in Haryana for allegedly harbouring Amritpal Singh
Mar 23, 2023
NEW DELHI: A woman resident of Kurukshetra in Haryana, who had allegedly given shelter to fugitive Amritpal Singh and one of his associates, has been arrested on the charge of harbouring the fugitive.
The police have examined the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage collected from various locations and found that after leaving a "gurdwara" in Jalandhar, where he changed his clothes, Amritpal Singh and his aide Pappalpreet had driven off on a motorcycle that was forcibly taken from an individual.
The two reached Sheikhpura, crossed the Sutlej river using an abandoned railway bridge connecting Phillaur and Laddowal, and took an auto rickshaw from outside Hardy's World in Ludhiana. On March 19, they went to the residence of Baljeet Kaur, who allegedly knew Pappalpreet for the past two-and-half years.
The duo spent the night there and left the next day. The police are making efforts to trace their subsequent movements.
Another man arrested
The Inspector-General of Punjab Police, Sukchain Singh Gill, on Thursday told presspersons that another person named Tajinder Singh aka Gorkha Baba had been arrested by the Khanna police.
At his instance, they found video clips and photographs purportedly revealing that several elements, linked to Amritpal Singh, were involved in "anti-national" activities. They had set up shooting ranges for firearms training.
Holograms of Anandpur Khalsa Force (AKF), allegedly floated by the radical preacher, were also seized.
Gill said the evidence gathered so far indicated that there was a planning to raise an armed militia comprising close associates. The police have already invoked the National Security Act provisions against Amritpal Singh and got a non-bailable warrant for his arrest.
Gill said 30 persons directly involved in eight criminal cases linked to the ongoing operation had been arrested so far, while 177 were under detention temporarily as a preventive measure to ensure peace. Following proper verification of their antecedents, the detainees would be released.
