Chandigarh: The wife of controversial self-styled preacher Amritpal Singh was stopped Thursday afternoon from flying to the UK after a team of Punjab Police stopped her from boarding a plane at the Amritsar airport.
After three hours of questioning at the airport, Kirandeep Kaur missed her flight to Birmingham and returned to her husband’s house in Jallupur Khera village near Amritsar.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Amritsar Rural, Satinder Singh told ThePrint that she was stopped on the basis of a look out circular that was earlier issued against her. “She was told at the airport that she cannot leave the country. We asked her some questions and let her go back home. She has not been arrested,” the SSP said.
Singh added that for the time being, she is not named in any of the FIRs involving Amritpal and his aides.
Since the crackdown on her husband and his men, Kirandeep has been questioned by the Punjab Police about her association with Amritpal and the funds in her bank accounts.
Amritpal is on the run since 18 March when he slipped out of a police dragnet in Jalandhar. His mentor and fellow fugitive Papalpreet Singh was arrested from Hoshiarpur on 10 April.
Kirandeep had arrived in India a week before her wedding in February and she has a six-month visa to stay in India. “If the law requires, she will have to remain in India even after the visa expires,” the SSP said.
Kirandeep, a British citizen, had married Amritpal at Jallupur Khera in a simple ceremony. Amritpal termed his marriage as a case of “reverse migration”, something he has been preaching to his followers to engage in.
The radical preacher made sure that his wife’s pictures were not made public, explaining that he was doing it for security concerns and keeping his personal life private.
In a recent interview, Kirandeep reportedly told the media that Amritpal wanted to keep her secure and because of that reason he would not allow her to come out frequently in public. She also claimed that she had no plan to return to the UK and would stay in her husband’s house as desired by Amritpal.
Six criminal cases have been lodged against Amritpal in a span of one year, ranging from attempted murder to kidnapping.
The first was just before after he stormed a police station on 24 February, along with his supporters who brandished swords and other weapons, to free his close aide Lovepreet Singh Toofan. The close aide is also at large since 18 March.
The stringent National Security Act (NSA) was also invoked against Singh, the Punjab government informed the high court two days after he escaped. Nine of his close associates, including Papalpreet and Punjabi actor Daljit Kalsi, are already jailed under the NSA at Dibrugarh in Assam.
(Edited by Tony Rai)