The Amritsar (rural) police on Monday arrested US resident Bhupinder Singh Cheema for playing a role in holding the November 10 radicals’ Sarbat Khalsa. Cheema’s name has been included in the FIR that was registered at the Chattiwind police station after the ‘Sarbat Khalsa’. He has been booked on the charges of sedition. Cheema was later produced before a local court and sent to one-day police custody.
Confirming the development, Amritsar (rural) senior superintendent of police (SSP) Jasdeep Singh said, “Cheema is a US national who played an active role in holding the ‘Sarbat Khalsa’. We have pictures to prove that he was sitting on the stage.”
Cheema lives in Santa Clara, California, and is known there as a community worker.
After the ‘Sarbat Khalsa’, the police had started a crackdown on radicals and registered a case of sedition against the organisers and the Takht ‘jathedars’ named during the congregation.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD-Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann and United Akali Dal chief Mohkam Singh, main organisers of the ‘Sarbat Khalsa’, were earlier booked on sedition charges.