How fugitive preacher Amritpal Singh outran cops during the chase?

#UPDATE | Punjab: 7 individuals who had been arrested in reference to ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief Amritpal Singh dropped at court docket in Beas pic.twitter.com/EFni7Fp32y

— ANI (@ANI) March 19, 2023

The Punjab authorities had on Saturday launched a significant crackdown in opposition to Amritpal, with police arresting 78 members of an outfit headed by him, officers stated.

The elusive preacher himself, nonetheless, gave the police a slip and escaped their dragnet when his cavalcade was intercepted in Jalandhar district, in accordance with a report in PTI. Because the operation went underway, authorities stepped up safety at a number of locations and suspended web and SMS companies.

Police on Saturday launched a “large state-wide cordon and search operations (CASO)” within the state in opposition to the members of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ group, headed by Singh, in opposition to whom a number of felony instances have been registered.

Seventy-eight individuals have been arrested thus far, whereas a number of others have been detained for questioning, they stated.

The police motion got here a day forward of the beginning of Amritpal Singh’s ‘Khalsa Wahir’ – a spiritual procession – which was to begin from Muktsar district.

Throughout their state-wide operation, police seized one .315 bore rifle, seven 12 bore rifles, one revolver, and 373 stay cartridges of various caliber, they stated.

The officer stated Harminder Singh was caught with a weapon and 139 cartridges. Throughout questioning, he instructed police that Amritpal had procured these cartridges by way of one other particular person named Gurbhej.

Requested whether or not “any cross-border connection” has come to the fore throughout their investigation, the SSP stated, “I will be unable to touch upon this now as investigations are underneath progress.” “We try to arrest him and we’re hopeful of arresting him,” he stated.

Requested why it took them so lengthy to register an FIR within the Ajnala incident, SSP stated “the FIR was registered the very subsequent day. How we’ve to behave is our inner matter. We’ve got to behave maintaining in view numerous issues and we’ve been profitable on this.”

He asserted that the regulation and order scenario is underneath management and peaceable in Punjab. “We enchantment to the general public to not lend ear to rumours.” The SSP stated Amritpal’s home in his native village was additionally searched as a part of the crackdown.

“Two MUVs have been recovered thus far,” he stated. Police had on Saturday stated that an operation was launched to nab Amritpal and his supporters for being concerned in 4 felony instances referring to spreading disharmony amongst lessons, try and homicide, assault on police personnel, and creating obstructions within the lawful discharge of duties of public servants.

An FIR dated February 24 stands registered in opposition to followers of ‘Waris Punjab De’, an organisation headed by Amritpal, for the assault on Ajnala Police Station, police had stated. Final month, Amritpal and his supporters, a few of them brandishing swords and weapons, broke by way of barricades and barged into the Ajnala Police Station on the outskirts of the Amritsar metropolis, clashing with police for the discharge of one in all Amritpal’s aide.

In the meantime, seven folks arrested in reference to the hyperlinks to ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief Amritpal Singh was dropped at court docket in Beas on Sunday and so they have been remanded to police custody until March 23, says SP Amritsar Rural Jugraj Singh.