Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], March 23 : Punjab's Inspector General of Police (IGP), Headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill on Thursday said that a total of 207 persons have been arrested for disturbing peace and harmony in the state, of which, 30 have been found in substantive criminal activities, while, remaining are under preventive arrest.
"Police teams are doing thorough screening of all the arrested persons and soon they will be released from police custody," he said.
The IGP said that this operation was carried out on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann with an aim to save the innocent youth of Punjab from playing into the hands of Anti-National Forces.
"Punjab Police have clear instructions from the Chief Minister not to harass any innocent person during the ongoing operation. Police teams have even not harassed the family members of Amritpal Singh," he said.
Divulging more details, IGP Sukhchain Singh Gill said that the Punjab Police in a joint operation with Haryana Police have arrested a woman identified as Baljeet Kaur for harbouring Amritpal Singh and his aide Pappalpreet Singh at her home in Kurukshetra, Haryana on March 19. Accused Baljit Kaur revealed that Pappalpreet was in touch with her for the last two and a half years," he said.
In a major breakthrough in the ongoing manhunt for fugitive pro-Khalistan leader and radical preacher Amritpal Singh, Sukhchain Singh Gill revealed that the Waris Punjab De chief's last location was in Haryana.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh on Thursday, the IGP said, "We are still actively searching for Amritpal Singh and have come to know that its last location was in Haryana. We have taken a woman named Baljeet Kaur into custody. Amritpal stayed at this woman's house in Kurukshetra (Haryana) and the Waris Punjab De chief and his close aide had been in touch with her for the last two-and-a-half years." The IGP said Baljeet Kaur disclosed during questioning that both Amritpal and his key aide, Papalpreet Singh, had stayed at her house on the night of March 19.
"We arrested Baljeet Kaur with the help of Haryana Police. She disclosed during interrogation that on the night of March 19, both Papalpreet Singh and Amritpal had put up at her place. She said she had Papalpreet for more than the last couple of years and he had stayed at her house on several occasions," the IGP said.
"After staying the night, they moved out of there (her house) the next day. We are examining the CCTV footage and are hopeful of arresting Amritpal soon," he added.
The Punjab IGP informed further that Amritpal and his aide changed their two-wheeler near a gurdwara at Sehowal village in Jalandhar and tried to get a boat to get across a river.
"Our team continues to be in his trail. We are examining CCTV footage retrieved from several locations in a bid to trace his whereabouts. They changed their two-wheeler at a gurdwara at Sehowal village and tried to get a boat to cross the river. However, they failed to get one and eventually used an overbridge to get across the river," the IGP added.
"After roaming around in another two-wheeler, they hired an auto-rickshaw. After this, they were located at Kurukshetra. Gurpej (one of the four men arrested for allegedly helping Amritpal escape), who is currently in our custody, told us about another woman, apart from Baljeet Kaur, who he may turn to for refuge," the IGP added.
He said that, during the ongoing operation, Khanna Police have also another Amritpal's close associate identified as Tejinder Singh Gill alias Gorkha Baba (42) of village Mangewal in Khanna.
Police teams have also recovered some incriminating material including holograms of Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF) and weapon training videos, from his possession.
An FIR on March 22 has been registered under sections 188 and 336 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 27 of the Arms Act at Police Station Malaud in Khanna," the IGP said.
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