Chandigarh: On the run since 18 March, Papalpreet Singh, a close aide of Khalistan activist Amritpal Singh, was finally arrested by the Punjab Police from Amritsar’s Kathu Nangal township Monday.
Confirming the developments, Inspector General of Police (Headquarters) Sukhchain Singh Gill told reporters that Papalpreet was arrested with the efforts of the Amritsar (Rural) police. Gill, who is also a spokesperson for the Punjab Police, added that Papalpreet had been detained under the National Security Act (NSA) and that he faces another half-dozen FIRs filed against him in different police stations across the state.
However, Papalpreet’s associate Amritpal Singh continues to evade arrest, along with other key aides including his security guard Bikramjeet Singh and Lovepreet Singh Toofan — whose arrest led to the Ajnala incident in February.
Papalpreet’s wife Rajwinder Kaur told media outlets Monday that he was a journalist and social worker with a limited role in his involvement with Amritpal. “He was Amritpal’s media advisor. He used to arrange interviews by journalists with Amritpal. My husband is a journalist and used to fund the education of poor children,” she said.
Other members of his family, including his mother, claimed that Papalpreet used to secure funds from philanthropists that he “handed over to the needy for whom it was intended”.
Who is Papalpreet Singh
According to the police dossier on Papalpreet, the 38-year-old resident of Marrhi village in Amritsar’s Majitha block took Amritpal under his wing shortly after the latter landed in Punjab from Dubai last August. He also familiarised Amritpal with his version of Sikh history and the Khalistan movement of the 1980s-1990s, besides supplying the 30-year-old with intellectual justification for his utterances.
Papalpreet, who holds an engineering diploma, comes from a farming family who own some land in their native village. Sources added that he was formerly a close associate of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann, who is currently the Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur.
According to police sources, Papalpreet was in touch with some radical elements based out of the UK, Canada, and the US. In 2017, he travelled to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore, where he addressed multiple gatherings of Sikhs in various gurdwaras.
Over the past few years, Papalpreet had been using social media to speak about radical Sikhism. He also interviewed Sikh militants and spoke about community-related issues on UK-based Akaal Channel, Sikh24.com, and Punjabshield.com, among others.
Further, he was engaged in documenting the lives of former militants and journalling about incidents from Punjab’s militancy days. Sources in the police added that such activities resulted in the suspension of many of his social media accounts over the years.
Papalpreet was also involved in procuring donations for families of former militants from sympathetic NRIs, and this was among his sources of income, sources said.
When Amritpal’s social media accounts were banned in September last year, Papalpreet used his Facebook page and other accounts to spread information about the former’s activities, they added.
Papalpreet was also allegedly involved in in organising the 2015 Sarbat Khalsa held at Chabba village in Amritsar. The Sarbat Khalsa, or congregation of all Sikhs, was organised by radical Sikh outfits in the wake of alleged incidents of sacrilege involving the Guru Granth Sahib. Papalpreet was booked on charges of sedition for his alleged role in organising the event.
Manhunt for Amritpal continues
The Punjab Police had launched a statewide crackdown on 18 March to take Amritpal, the Dubai-returned head of the outfit Waris Punjab De, and his aides into custody after they laid siege to the Ajnala police station to secure Toofan’s release.
Papalpreet was travelling with Amritpal on 18 March when the police tried to capture them, but the duo managed to give officers the slip and were later seen travelling together to evade arrest.
In CCTV footage accessed by the police, the two were seen on a motorcycle, on a rickshaw carting the motorcycle, on auto-rickshaws, and on foot at various spots in Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.
Police sources told ThePrint that Papalpreet was arranging hideouts for himself and Amritpal since the latter did not have many contacts. For instance, on 19 March, the two were hosted in Haryana’s Kurukshetra by one Baljeet Kaur who knew Papalpreet and gave them shelter on his request, police said.
The two were last seen together on 27 March when they managed to give police the slip for a second time and parted ways at Marnaian village in Hoshiarpur. Retrieved by the police, CCTV footage dated 29 March shows Papalpreet walking near a gurdwara outside the village.
On 30 March, Amritpal issued two seperate audio and video messages appealing to the jathedar (chief priest) of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, to convene a Sarbat Khalsa to dwell on issues facing the Sikh community. Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh, however, has remained silent on the issue.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)