Khalistani fugitive Amritpal Singh last traced in Haryana's Kurukshetra, woman held for giving shelter

Khalistani fugitive Amritpal Singh last traced in Haryana's Kurukshetra, woman held for giving shelter

He reportedly stayed overnight at the home of one of his associates, Baljeet Kaur, before leaving early the next morning.

Rajesh MoudgilUpdated: Thursday, March 23, 2023, 10:08 PM IST
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Security forces on Thursday nabbed a woman who had allegedly harboured radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his close aid, Papalpreet Singh, at her home in Kurukshetra, Haryana. The arrest of the woman is an indication that the pro-Khalistan head of Waris Punjab De (WPD) has reached the doorstep of Delhi, if he has not already entered the national capital.

Security officials said Amritpal could plan to use any of the numerous link roads to sneak into Delhi from Haryana and then flee to Nepal.

The woman who was nabbed, identified as Baljit Kaur, a resident of Sidharth colony of Shahbad town, was reportedly in touch with Papalpreet over phone for more than two years.

She was nabbed by Haryana police and handed over to Punjab police, according to Kurukshetra superintendent of police Surinder Singh Bhoria. Baljit Kaur is learnt to have given shelter to the two fugitives on March 19 at her home, a day after the Punjab police crackdown on Amritpal and his associates.

The initial interrogation of Baljit Kaur showed that the fugitive preacher plans to flee towards Uttarakhand to finally reach Nepal, as Kurukshetra neighbours Yamunanagar district which borders Dehradun district of Uttarakhand.

She also reportedly told police that he had changed his attire and his appearance with a different pattern of moustache and beard.

Police also nabbed Amritpal’s gunman, Tejinder Singh Gill aka Gorkha Baba, a resident of Mangewal village of Punjab’s Khanna district, according to Punjab Inspector General of Police (HQ) Sukhchain Singh Gill.

The police official said that the neighbouring states have been alerted about the movement of the two fugitives.

The preacher was also an Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF) and has a firing range near his native village, Jallupur Khera, where arms training was being imparted, Gill said after a review of videos on the phone of Gorkha Baba.

About 30 of the 207 supporters of the WPD chief arrested till date have serious criminal charges against them, Gill said, adding that most of the others would soon be released.

Police suspect that the radical preacher and his aides might have taken link roads from Jalandhar to Moga and onwards to Ludhiana to reach Kurukshetra via neighbouring Kaithal in Haryana or Patiala in Punjab.

Amritpal is suspected to have changed his appearance in Phillaur in Punjab before crossing over to Haryana with Papalpreet after snatching a third motorcycle after their two wheeler broke down.

The fugitive was also seen near Shahbad in a different attire, police said after viewing CCTV camera footage.

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