Amritpal’s aide held for providing shelter to fugitive in Pilibhit

Punjab Police on Saturday arrested Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh's aide Joga Singh from Sirhind town

Chandigarh: Punjab Police on Saturday arrested Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh’s aide Joga Singh from Sirhind town for allegedly providing shelter and other assistance to Amritpal in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit, Deputy Inspector General (Border Range) Narinder Bhargav said.

His arrest came days after the police arrested the fugitive radical preacher’s mentor Papalpreet Singh in Amritsar.

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“Joga Singh was in direct contact with Amritpal Singh. He arranged shelter and vehicles for Amritpal Singh. He arranged for him to stay in Pilibhit and then return to Punjab,” Bhargav told the media in Amritsar.

The police also released an earlier picture of Joga Singh, sitting beside Amritpal Singh in a yellow turban.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Rural) Satinder Singh said Joga Singh was the one who brought Amritpal back to Punjab on March 27. He was an in-charge of a ‘dera’ in Pilibhit.

Joga Singh was with Amritpal Singh from March 18 to 28, said the police.

Amritpal Singh has been evading arrest, changing his location and looks multiple times, since March 18 when the police launched a massive crackdown to arrest him while he was on his way to Jalandhar but he managed to escape on a motorcycle.

Papalpreet Singh, the main associate of fugitive ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief and self-styled radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh, was arrested in Punjab’s Amritsar district on Monday and detained under the National Security Act (NSA), Inspector General of Police Sukhchain Singh Gill said.

Papalpreet Singh was held on April 10 under the National Security Act (NSA) by the Amritsar Rural Police and that six other cases have also been registered against him.

Papalpreet Singh is a Khalistani activist who called himself a journalist before ending up as a media advisor to the radical preacher. A resident of Amritsar district, he was earlier arrested for his alleged links to Pakistan’s ISI in 2015.

Earlier, the stringent law has been invoked against Daljit Singh Kalsi, Bhagwant Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Pradhanmantri Bajeke and Harjit Singh, who have been shifted to the Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam.