Fugitive Amritpal’s Aide Arrested After Both Escaped From Police Together

New Delhi: Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh’s close aide Pappalpreet Singh was on Monday arrested by Punjab Police’s counter-intelligence unit from Hoshiarpur.

A joint operation by Punjab Police and special cell of Delhi police led to the arrest, reported NDTV.

Pappalpreet has been detained under the National Security Act, police said.

Amritpal and Pappalpreet had been together since their dramatic escape from a police dragnet in Jalandhar last month, and took different routes on reaching Hoshiarpur.

Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal has been on the run since March 18. He reportedly asked the chiefs of top Sikh body Akal Takht to convene a ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ gathering in Bathinda on the occasion of Baisakhi, following which Punjab Police bosses cancelled all leaves till on April 14.

After the ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief made the appeal in an unverified video, police have stepped up security arrangements in Bathinda.

It’s unlikely that Akal Takht chief Giani Harpreet Singh – who can decide whether to call such a rare congregation after consulting with Sikh scholars and intellectuals – will oblige as he has appealed to Amritpal to surrender to the police.

Sarbat Khalsa congregation last happened in 2015.