Journalism of Courage
Among those detained by the Punjab Police under the National Security Act (NSA) amid the ongoing crackdown on radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh, is a clerk with the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) whose father was allegedly picked up by police in 1993 during militancy and never returned.
Kulwant Singh Rauke (38), from Rauke Kalan village of Moga, as per the police, is an active member of Waris Punjab De, the outfit headed by Amritpal. Kulwant is considered very close to Amritpal and used to attend all his programmes.
Speaking to The Indian Express, his sister Jaswinder Kaur said that police had been on the lookout for Kulwant ever since the crackdown on Waris Punjab De began on Saturday.
“On Monday evening, we ourselves called the police and my brother surrendered. He is a PSPCL employee, not a criminal. He did nothing wrong if he was supporting Waris Punjab De for encouraging youths to get baptized. My brother is also an Amritdhari Sikh. He used to attend religious congregations of other organizations also,” said Jaswinder Kaur.
She claimed that earlier, the police had said that they will “only counsel my brother so that he doesn’t get involved in any anti-social activities” and doesn’t organize any protest. “We assured them that he will not indulge in any such activity. He was scheduled to join duty from Wednesday. But they took him away without telling us that what is the case and under which law,” said the sister.
She said that in March 1993, their father Charhat Singh, who was then the sarpanch of the village, was picked up by the police and never returned. “Till date we do not know if he died, if he was killed in a fake encounter or he is still alive. We do not have any proof of his death,” said Jaswinder, adding at the time she was not born and her brother was nine years old.
“From the day of March 25, 1993 to now, we do not that what police did to our father. Today when they took my brother, we recorded videos and also called panchayat to ensure everything was on record,” she added.
Moga SSP J Elanchezhian, meanwhile, said that Kulwant was arrested after his warrants under the NSA were received from Amritsar rural police.
Earlier, police had detained Bhagwant Singh alias Pardhan Mantri Bajeke, Basant Singh and Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala from Moga; Amritpal’s uncle Harjit Singh from Amritsar and Daljeet Singh Kalsi from Gurgaon under the NSA and they have been taken to Dibrugarh prison in Assam.
IG Sukhchain Singh Gill said that till now eight have been booked under NSA including Amritpal Singh of which 7 have been detained. Gurinderpal Singh Guri Aujla from Kapurthala has also been held under NSA.
Also detained under NSA, Amritpal’s social media handler
A resident of the United Kingdom, who had previously been arrested while trying to fly out of the country on March 9, was nabbed again by Punjab Police from Kapurthala on Tuesday for being an alleged close aide of radical preacher Amritpal Singh.
The arrested man was identified as Gurinderpal Singh alias Guri Aujla (44) and has been booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).
According to the police, Gurinderpal was handling the Twitter account of Amritpal Singh and was very active on social media.
Giving more details, the police said that Gurinderpal’s father lives in Phagwara while his brother lives in Kukkar Pind village of Jalandhar near Jalandhar Cantonment. Gurinderpal, police said, was putting up with his brother in Kukkar Pind currently.
According to details, Gur Aujla is a resident of the United Kingdom and has been in Punjab for the last few months. A case under Section 188 was previously registered against him by Jalandhar police on February 20 for exhibiting weapons on social media.
Ever since the Jalandhar case, Gurinderpal had gone into hiding and a look out circular had been issued against him. On March 9, he attemped to flee to the UK but was stopped and arrested. He had later managed to secure bail in the case.
