Four more arrests in Tuesday’s murderous attack on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadarianwale that killed one of his aides took the count of accused to eight on Friday. Police explore their links with the radical Damdami Taksal of Harnam Singh Dhumma.
Police commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh confirmed that the accused — Sukhwinder Singh “Sonu” of Amritsar’s Gahiri village, Manveer Singh “Mahant” of Hissowal (Sudhar, Ludhiana), Gurpreet Singh “Gopi” of Daluwala near Haridwar in Uttrakhand, and Satnam Singh of Moranwali in Faridkot — would be interrogated about possible links with Dhumma. “We’ll seek their police custody from court on Saturday to be able to know the motive,” said Aulukh.
The followers of Dhumma are believed to have carried out the attack over a verbal spat on the social media with the Dhadrianwale faction. Accused Sukhwinder Singh now lives at Amritsar’s Chowk Mehta, where Dhumma has his dera. Police claim that all the accused have accepted their hand in the crime and led them to the Tata Safari car that a surveillance camera had captured fleeing the crime scene on May 17.
Aulakh said police had trapped the four new accused at Kishangarh Adda on the Jalandhar-Pathankot road on their way in from Bhogpur. Another four accused were arrested on May 18. Sources said they had surrendered but had been shown as arrested. Police have the custody of the first four till Monday (May 23).
{{/usCountry}}Aulakh said police had trapped the four new accused at Kishangarh Adda on the Jalandhar-Pathankot road on their way in from Bhogpur. Another four accused were arrested on May 18. Sources said they had surrendered but had been shown as arrested. Police have the custody of the first four till Monday (May 23).
{{/usCountry}}Dhadrianwale took cover in police mess
Dodging death and racing away from the hail of bullets fired at his vehicle on Tuesday (May 17), Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale had taken shelter in a Ludhiana police mess for two hours. Senior police officers who had moved to the scene of crime on the Barewal road had escorted Dhadrianwale to the mess.