Two men were arrested on the accusation of harbouring radical preacher Amritpal Singh who has been on the run after Punjab Police launched a crackdown last month. Police had last month launched a major crackdown against Amritpal and members of his outfit 'Waris Punjab De.' The Khalistan sympathiser, who is yet to be nabbed, evaded arrest in Jalandhar district on March 18, switching vehicles and changing appearances.
Hardeep Singh (22) and Kuldip Singh (30), both brothers and residents of Rajpur Bhaian village were produced before a court and sent to a four-day police remand, news agency PTI reported.
PTI reported their counsels Tanheer Singh Bariana and J S Bhutta as saying that Hardeep and Kuldip, who work as labourers, were arrested under relevant Sections of 212 (harbouring offender) of the Indian Penal Code by the Mehtiana police station for allegedly harbouring Amritpal Singh.
According to the police, when Amritpal escaped from the police after reaching Marnaian village on March 28, he met both the brothers who were loading sand in a tractor-trailer. They allegedly took Amritpal to their house where they fed him and gave him clothes, police said, as per PTI.
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Rajasthan Police On Lookout For Amritpal Singh In Hanumangarh: State Police Chief
The Rajasthan Police is searching for Amritpal in Hanumangarh district and nearby areas, the state police chief said Thursday, according to PTI.
Rajasthan DGP Umesh Mishra said that the search operation was launched Wednesday night following information about Amritpal's likely presence in the Hanumangarh district bordering Punjab.
He said that teams of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Emergency Response Team (ERT) of Rajasthan Police are actively on the lookout for the radical preacher.
As per the state police chief, alerts have also been sounded in Sriganganagar, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, and Barmer.
Recently, his aide Papalpreet Singh has been flown to Assam's Dibrugarh Jail amid tight security after he was arrested in Punjab's Hoshiarpur on Monday. Papalpreet Singh was arrested from Hoshiarpur in a joint operation cone Punjab Police and its counter-intelligence unit along with Delhi Police.
Eight other close aides of Amritpal Singh, including his uncle Harjeet Singh, have been lodged at the high-security Dibrugarh Central Jail, after being slapped with the stringent National Security Act (NSA).