A day after his arrest, shown as "preventive detention" by the Nawanshahr police in view of the NDA's Bharat Bandh on Thursday, the district (rural) police, on Friday, slapped sedition charges against SGPC member Kulbir Singh Barapind, booking him for "waging war against the State" and under various sections of the IPC after the recovery of a pistol from his house during a police raid conducted in the wee hours.
About 40 police vehicles reached Barapind village in the wee hours and started searching his two houses in the village, police sources said, adding that as Barapind was lodged in Ludhiana jail, his wife Khushveer Kaur and his old parents were present in the house.
After a thorough search of the two houses, the raiding party recovered a .30-bore pistol and six live cartridges, apart from a weapon-cleaning material, a sealed security camera, two night-vision binoculars, three laptops, a video camera, a digital camera, two walkie-talkie sets, seditious literature, two bullet-proof jackets and a red beacon, SP (detective) Rajinder Singh said.
He claimed that on the basis of credible information, it was found that Barapind was planning to indulge in militant activity and an FIR number 137 under sections 121 (waging war against the State), 121A (conspiracy to wage war against the State) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, section 3/4/5 of the Explosives Act, section 25 of the Arms Act and various sections of the
Unlawful Activities Act had been registered against the SGPC member. Fifteen police vehicles again reached the village in the evening to conduct another search, which was on till the filing of this report.
{{/usCountry}}Unlawful Activities Act had been registered against the SGPC member. Fifteen police vehicles again reached the village in the evening to conduct another search, which was on till the filing of this report.
{{/usCountry}}Khushweer said they were surprised to see so many cops in their house early in the morning when all of them were asleep. "After conducting the search, a pistol was shown to us, which they claimed to have recovered from our house," she said, alleging that the pistol was planted by the raiding team, which did not even show them the search warrant. "Are we fools that in spite of Kulbir's arrest, we will keep a pistol in our house?" she asked.