Chandigarh: Even as the Punjab police has stepped up its Pan-Punjab hunt to nab the radical leader Amritpal Singh - who is on the run since Saturday - and declared him fugitive, he has been booked in a fresh case for possessing illegal arms.
Police said that during the Saturday massive operation to arrest him, nine weapons – one .315 bore rifle, seven .12 bore rifles and one revolver, besides over 370 live cartridges of different calibers, were recovered from the vehicles of his and his closed aides, while two of the cars used by them had also been seized.
Police said that Amritpal and the supporters of the "Waris Punjab De’’ (WPD) organisation, which he headed, faced four criminal cases relating to spreading disharmony in society, attempt to murder, attacking police personnel and obstructing public servants from discharging duties.
112 arrested so far
It may be recalled that the chief minister Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government - which faced flak for Amritpal’s pro-Khalistan remarks as well as February 23 incident when the radical leader had stormed the Ajnala police station along with his supporters demanding release of one of his aides and injured several police personnel - had launched a massive hunt to track down him and his WPD supporters on Saturday that had led to the arrest of about 78 of his aides. On Sunday, police had also nabbed Daljeet Singh Kalsi aka Sarabjeet Kalsi, alleged to be Amritpal’s adviser and financier, according to media reports.
An official release said that with 34 more arrests made till Sunday night, the number of total arrested so far, had risen to 112.
Meanwhile, even as the state police and the CRPF conducted flag-march across the state on Sunday, the mobile Internet services were further suspended till Monday noon (12 O Clock).
ESCAPED HITTING VEHICLES IN NARROW LANES
Interacting with media persons on Sunday, Jalandhar deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Swapan Sharma said that Amritpal Singh succeeded in escaping as he and close aides frequently changed routes and vehicles, after noticing that he was being chased by police, and had immediately dumped their phones thus failing the police to keep the track of their location.
Stating that the vehicle in which they were travelling, had also entered the narrow one-lane rural roads of Jalandhar’s small towns of Shahkot and Malsiyan and sped past hitting five to six private vehicles – mainly motor-cycles, something the police could not do.
Asked if he was still in state or fled, Sharma said that this information could not be shared. On the question if Amritpal too had plans to flee abroad as his wife had reportedly applied for Canada visa, the DIG did not rule out the possibility.
4 AIDES FLOWN TO ASSAM JAIL
Meanwhile, according to media reports, four of fugitive Amritpal, who were among 78 arrested on Saturday were flown to Dibrugarh Central jail in Assam on a special flight. Details on the identity of the accused were awaited.
FATHER DEFENDS AMRITPAL
Meanwhile, Tarsem Singh, father of the radical leader Amritpal, on Sunday alleged that the police was lying that his son was absconding as he believed he had already been arrested by the state police. According to media reports, Tarsem Singh defended his son saying that the latter had never given any call for any violence and that all his talks were within his constitutional rights. He appealed to the WPD supporters to protest peacefully.
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