Khalistani separatist Amritpal Singh, who has been on the run since March 18, had created an outfit called 'Warris Panj-Aab De', phonetically similar to 'Waris Punjab De' already formed by Deep Sidhu's brother, to piggyback on the late actor's popularity.
This was after the radical preacher failed to take control of the existing outfit, documents confiscated during a crackdown on him showed, PTI reported.
Here's a look at top developments in the police crackdown against Amritpal Singh:
1. Deep Sidhu's brother Mandeep created an organisation in Fathehgarh Sahib on July 4, 2022, in accordance with Deep's desires to promote 'Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan'. Mandeep stated that the organisation was created to fulfill his late brother's vision of serving the people of Punjab.
2. When Amritpal returned from overseas in August 2022 and demanded the papers for 'Waris Punjab De', Mandeep refused to hand them over. The Sidhu family refused to acknowledge Amritpal as the heir to Deep's ideology and said the actor had blocked his number before his tragic road accident in February 2022, PTI reported.
3. Out of the blue, a new organisation called 'Warris Panj-Aab De' surfaced, with Deep Sidhu's official Facebook page linked to it. It was registered in Moga district, with its inception date set being mentioned as December 15, 2021. The Facebook page amassed a huge following, causing confusion among people, who assumed that Amritpal had taken over the organisation created by Deep Sidhu.
4. Some documents unearthed during the ongoing crackdown against Amritpal Singh suggest that the establishment of 'Warris Panj-Aab De' was potentially backdated. The organisation's registered address was "Guru Nanak Furniture Store", owned by Amritpal's close associate Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala, in Duneke village in Moga district.
5. Bukkanwala has been taken into custody and charged under the National Security Act and shifted to Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam. During questioning, he claimed that the organisation was established much later, and some contacts were used to register it backdated from Moga district.
6. Days after launching a crackdown, the Punjab Police on Sunday said it has released 197 people out of the total 353 taken into preventive custody on apprehension of breach of peace and disturbance of law and order. The police said it has detained seven persons under the stringent National Security Act.
7. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has issued clear directions that the Punjab Police should adopt a positive approach while screening persons arrested on account of apprehension of breach of peace or in substantive criminal offences.
8. Earlier it was revealed that Amritpal Singh was raising his own army -- Amritpal Tiger Force -- along with Anandpur Khalsa Fauj and had also designed and printed the currency of Khalistan, for which he was driving a movement. The currency, copied from the dollar, also had a map of Khalistan printed on it.
9. Amritpal Singh has been evading the police but he has been caught on CCTVs multiple times. A new CCTV footage emerged on Saturday purportedly showing him wearing jacket and trouser and speaking on a mobile phone. A CCTV footage had surfaced on Thursday showing Amritpal Singh wearing a shirt and trouser while holding an umbrella in Haryana's Shahabad in an apparent bid to hide himself from CCTV cameras.
10. Two women were recently arrested for sheltering the Khalistani separatist in Patiala as the search for Amritpal Singh continues.
(With PTI inputs)
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