In a major breakthrough, the Amritsar police nabbed the man who made an extortion threat to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) recently, leading to an alert in and around the Golden Temple.
The accused, identified as Kamal Verma (25), a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, was nabbed from Sri Guru Ram Dass Sarai of the SGPC after the police launched a search operation.
The accused had made a phone call to the manager of Darbar Sahib a few days ago and demanded money.
Police sources claimed that he had also warned of dire consequences if the money was not paid.
As soon as the threat came in, both police and the SGPC had swung into action and tightened the security in and around the holy shrine. The SGPC had even passed an order to restraining devotees from carrying hand bags into the shrine and the SGPC officials had started a strict checking in this regard.
Giving details of the arrest, Amritsar police commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said, “We have been on the alert eversince the threat call was made to the manager of Darbar Sahib. We traced the phone number from which the call was made and found that the number belonged to a woman of Roorkee in Uttar Pradesh.”
{{/usCountry}}Giving details of the arrest, Amritsar police commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said, “We have been on the alert eversince the threat call was made to the manager of Darbar Sahib. We traced the phone number from which the call was made and found that the number belonged to a woman of Roorkee in Uttar Pradesh.”
{{/usCountry}}He added, “As our police team reached Roorkee, the woman told them that she had given her mobile phone for repair and the mechanic had misplaced the SIM card. Moving further, we questioned the mechanic who told us that his cousin Kamal Verma had taken the SIM card in Delhi”.
Aulakh said, “As we desperately needed this man, we got some vital tips and also managed to get his photograph. There were inputs that this person was present in Amritsar. A massive search operation was launched and the man was nabbed from Sri Guru Ram Dass Sarai”.
The Amritsar police had circulated copies of his photograph to police officials and these were also shown to various persons living in the vicinity of the Golden Temple.
To a question, the police commissioner said, “During the initial questioning, the accused claimed that his bag was once stolen from the Golden Temple premises and he made this phone call just to ensure that the security arrangements in the complex are heightened. But we are not buying this theory and a detailed investigation will be done in this regard. His past record will also be checked”.