How Amritpal Singh gave Punjab Police the slip, affidavit reveals details of chase

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, March 21

Crashing through police check-posts, brandishing weapons and switching vehicles…an affidavit submitted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday revealed the details of Amritpal Singh’s chase by the Punjab Police before he gave them the slip.

Amritpal, who heads the Waris Punjab De outfit and is named in several FIRs, has been on the run for the past four days. Based on a habeas corpus petition alleging his illegal detention by the police, the High Court on March 19 directed the police to file an affidavit in response thereof.

The operation to arrest Amritpal and others started on March 18. A naka was laid by personnel from the Khilchian police station (rural) in Amritsar.

He and his associates were travelling in a Mercedes, bearing a Haryana registration number, along with three other vehicles — two Ford Endeavours and a Hyundai Creta.

“They were directed by the police to stop at the naka, but the cavalcade broke through and escaped from the check-post,” the police affidavit states.

An FIR under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act was registered against Amritpal and others the same day. All adjoining police stations and districts were alerted to trace the vehicles.

While Amritpal and his associates were on the run, they were spotted driving rashly and negligently near Government School at Salema village under Mehatpur police station in Jalandhar district in a chocolate-coloured Isuzu pick-up bearing a Punjab registration number.

“Amritpal was carrying one .315 rifle and brandishing it with an objective of creating fear among the public. He and others abandoned the car and fled from the spot,” the affidavit states.

Upon search of the vehicle, one kirpan, one walkie-talkie set, one .315 bore rifle along with 57 cartridges were recovered from it, following which another FIR under provisions of the IPC and the Arms Act was registered at Jalandhar.

The affidavit reveals that Amritpal Singh Sandhu alias Amritpal Singh, is a resident of Jallupur Khera under the police station, Khilchian, in Amritsar district. According to the police, he had been professing radical ideology and raised the demand of secession of Punjab from India.