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On Amritpal's arrest, ex-jathedar's claim: ‘was not forced, police would not…’
Amritpal Singh was arrested in Punjab's Moga district on Sunday, more than a month after the state police launched a crackdown against him.
Former Akal Takht Jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode on Sunday dismissed reports claiming radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh was forced to surrender and said police would have not allowed ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief to address a gathering if they knew he was at the gurdwara in Rode village of the Moga district. Narrating the sequence leading up to Amritpal's arrest, Jasbir Singh Rode revealed that he was informed by the police about Amritpal's intention to surrender and arrived at the location prior to his surrender.
“After paying obeisance and reciting Paath went to gurdwara where he addressed the Sangat (gathering). He explained the reasons for being late in surrender and also thanked people who helped him, including providing him with stays,” Rode said.
"He (Amritpal) went outside of the gurdwara and surrendered before the police. The reports that Amritpal was arrested or forced to surrender are false. Police would not have allowed him to address a gathering if they knew he was here,” he added.
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Amritpal had been evading arrest since the police crackdown on his organization Waris Punjab De on March 18 after giving a slip to the police in the Jalandhar district. Since then, he has appeared in two videos and an audio clip that was widely circulated on social media. In the most recent video, the Khalistan sympathizer asserted that he was not a fugitive and would soon present himself to the world.
In the audio clip, he dismissed the reports claiming he was negotiating his surrender and called upon the Akal Takht for the second time to summon a “Sarbat Khalsa” congregation to discuss issues related to the Sikh community.
Punjab inspector general Sukhchain Singh Gill, however, told a press conference that police executed the arrest warrant under the national security act after creating relentless pressure on Amritpal Singh. Gill said police had credible information that Amritpal was in Rode, based on which they surrounded the village.
“Amritpal was arrested after concrete operational information. We had located him in Rode village after intelligence inputs and this village was surrounded by Punjab Police teams. As he knew that he was left with no option, he came outside the Gurudwara and we arrested him. He was arrested and hasn’t surrendered,” he said.
Gill said that police didn’t go storm the Gurudwara following the sanctity of the place of worship.
