The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday criticised the Punjab government for its failure to arrest Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh, asking how the pro-Khalistani radical preacher managed to escape despite the administration having 80,000 police personnel at its disposal.
“You have 80,000 cops, how did Amritpal Singh escape?” a bench of justice NS Shekhawat asked the state government during the hearing of a plea filed by Iman Singh Khara, legal adviser to Waris Punjab De. The plea demanded Singh’s release, claiming that he was in the “illegal custody” of police.
Singh – a 30-year-old preacher who police link to the larger Khalistani secessionist movement – remains on the run, four days after the administration launched a statewide manhunt to nab him. Police have arrested 154 people and filed eight first information reports.
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Responding to the court’s queries, the state’s advocate general, Vinod Ghai, submitted that the police arrested other leaders and filed eightfirst information reports against Singh, who remains at large.
{{/usCountry}}Responding to the court’s queries, the state’s advocate general, Vinod Ghai, submitted that the police arrested other leaders and filed eightfirst information reports against Singh, who remains at large.
{{/usCountry}}The National Security Act has been invoked against the absconding leader, Ghai told the court.
The court termed it a case of “intelligence failure” and asked how everyone else was arrested, but not Singh. “When there was a threat to the security of the country, what was the government doing till now? They were roaming around with weapons,” the court observed. “How did he manage to escape despite so many police officials?”
Ghai submitted an affidavit on the operation to apprehend Singh and said some details could not be revealed in open court. Punjab Police have arrested over 100 people in their hunt for Singh, seized several of his vehicles and stationed security personnel at his home town, he added.
The court sought a fresh affidavit from the state government and will hear the matter again on March 28.
Singh’s father Tarsem Singh appeared before the court and tried to address it. The court said he was not a party and if he wanted to submit anything, he should first file an application.
The developments came on a day the government finally restored mobile internet to large parts of the state, except four sensitive districts, after three days. Police have also invoked the National Security Act against five alleged accomplices of Singh, including his uncle, and taken them to Assam for interrogation.
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Singh and his followers are facing FIRs across Punjab involving allegations of spreading communal disharmony, attempt to murder and attacking policemen. The most prominent among them is related to the February 23 siege by thousands of Singh’s supporters of a police station in Ajnala town, which forced the state government to free a key aide who was accused of abduction. The protests and the police’s decision to give into the agitators’ demands sent shockwaves through the state and sparked concerns that the law-and-order situation was slipping in a state that battled militancy and separatism through the 1980s.