New Delhi: The Punjab Police arrested an operative of the banned Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) on Wednesday for promoting anti-national sentiments by defacing public properties and statues of prominent leaders, such as B.R. Ambedkar.
The suspect, identified as Resham Singh from Barnala district’s Hamidi village, is a long-time aide of SFJ founder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has listed as an “individual terrorist”.
At Pannun’s directions, Resham Singh has allegedly orchestrated four such incidents in Punjab so far this year, including the defacement of Ambedkar’s statue in Jalandhar’s Nangal village this month.
The accused, the police said, worked as a security guard in his home district before he came in contact with Pannun and his network.
Resham Singh was previously arrested by Karnal police in Haryana and Sangrur police in Punjab for his role in similar cases, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said.
“During the Indo-Pak escalation in May, he painted inflammatory slogans such as ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ to incite public unrest and promote anti-national sentiments,” Yadav said in a statement Wednesday.
Punjab Police’s State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) unit took Singh into custody from Kharar on the outskirts of Mohali.
Investigation has so far revealed that Resham Singh was working on the instructions of Pannun and Surinder Singh Thikriwal, originally from Barnala district and currently based in the US, the Punjab DGP said. Thikriwal allegedly fled India in 2022.
Pannun, a dual citizen of the US originally from Punjab, was declared an “individual terrorist” in July 2020, a year after his organisation was declared a terrorist outfit by the MHA in July 2019. Authorities have registered more than 100 cases against the SFJ and Pannun, with around 60 in Punjab alone.
Also Read: Sikh separatists engaging in violent extremism a ‘threat to national security’—Canada intel report
‘Pannun’s aide since 2019, funding of Rs 8-10 lakh’
According to the Punjab Police FIR, the SSOC’s Mohali unit received a tip-off around 7.45 a.m. Wednesday that Resham Singh was hiding somewhere in their jurisdiction.
The SSOC booked Singh and Thikriwal under Sections 152 (endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India), 196 (promoting enmity between different groups) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
In a statement to the media, SSOC Mohali in-charge Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Ravjot Grewal said that Resham Singh was taken into custody from a hideout arranged by Thikriwal.
Grewal said Resham Singh revealed his six-year-long association with Pannun and the overall network of the SFJ during interrogation. He allegedly confessed to having been introduced to the SFJ network in 2019 through Harpreet Singh alias Rana, who at the time used to host the media channel, Politics Punjab.
“Harpreet Rana was instrumental in connecting Resham to key SFJ members, including Bikramjit Singh (USA), J.S. Dhaliwal and Pannu himself,” Grewal said.
She further said that Resham has received at least Rs 8 lakh from Pannun and his network for promoting their secessionist propaganda, such as painting anti-India graffiti on important structures and public spaces.
Resham Singh came out of Sangrur jail in May 2024 after serving nearly two years in Sangrur and Karnal for involvement in similar offences in the respective districts.
According to records of cases submitted by the MHA before the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act tribunal constituted to vet the ban on SFJ, Resham Singh’s name first appeared in cases related to the outfit in 2022 when he and his nephew, Manpreet Singh, were arrested by Punjab Police for two incidents of painting secessionist graffiti.
The Sangrur police had filed an FIR under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, as well as relevant sections of the UAPA and the Punjab Prevention of Defacement of Public Property Act after the June 2022 incident of writing pro-Khalistan graffiti on the walls of a temple came to light.
Around the same time, the Karnal police booked Pannun under Sections 153A, 120B of the erstwhile IPC and 13 of the UAPA that deals with punishment for unlawful activities in connection with writing pro-Khalistan graffiti on the walls of Dyal Singh College and DAV Public School in the district.
Around a week later, similar graffiti was found on the boundary wall of Sangrur’s Water Testing Regional Laboratory and the Ranbir Club in Sangrur.
The Punjab Police arrested both Resham and Manpreet Singh in July 2022. However, as Manpreet was only 18 years old at the time of the offence, he revealed that Resham Singh was the main culprit behind the plot.
After spending considerable time in police custody, Resham Singh was granted bail in the Karnal case by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in April, while he secured bail in the Sangrur cases from the trial court in May last year.
However, Grewal said that as soon as he walked out of the Sangrur jail in May last year, he resumed his activities under the direction of Pannun and the SFJ network. The defacement of Ambedkar’s statue in Jalandhar was his last offence before arrest on Wednesday.
“The probe has revealed that after each act, accused Resham used to record videos and send them to his handlers abroad, who used them to fuel secessionist propaganda. Till now, the accused has received around Rs 8 to 10 lakh from his foreign-based handlers,” the AIG added.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: Born out of ‘desperation’, DRG is first line against Maoists in Bastar. Tech is giving them an edge