Jailed MP Amritpal Singh, two Canada-based handlers named in Faridkot murder case

The Punjab Police on Friday named jailed pro-Khalistan activist and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, along with two persons based in Canada, for the October 9 killing of Sikh activist Gurpreet Singh in Hari Nau village, Faridkot.

Amid the worsening of ties between India and Canada, DGP Gaurav Yadav said Canada-based Karamveer Gora and gangster-terrorist Arshdeep Singh Dala were the handlers of the four shooters who killed Gurpreet.

The DGP said Gora and Dala were in regular touch with the shooters.  He said three individuals involved in the murder had been arrested, while a manhunt was under way to nab the four shooters.

“This group was planning more killings as well,” Yadav said. “The murder was carried out at the behest of Amritpal Singh, currently lodged in Dibrugarh Jail, Assam, while the Canada-based handlers planned and executed the killing in Punjab,” Yadav added.

The victim, Gurpreet, was once a close friend of Amritpal Singh in Dubai. Gurpreet was among the nine primary members who founded the Waris Punjab De organisation, a Sikh political group under the leadership of actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu in September 2021.

In March 2022, a month after Deep Sidhu’s death in a road accident, Amritpal Singh became the president of the organisation. Gurpreet Singh supported the fight for justice for Krishan Bhagwan Singh, who protested sacrilege incidents and died in the Behbal Kalan police firing incident in October 2015.

The DGP said those arrested have been identified as Bilal Ahmed, alias Fauji; Guramardeep Singh, alias Pontu; and Arshdeep Singh, alias Jhandu. Yadav said that different modules were used for conducting reconnaissance and executing the murder, with separate handlers based abroad. He added that the criminals used cut-outs to mask the conspiracy.

“The three arrested individuals were part of the reconnaissance module, handled by Canada-based Karamveer Singh, alias Gora. The reconnaissance module passed on crucial information to the shooter module through their handlers and cut-outs,” he said.

Sharing operation details, the DGP said that acting swiftly, a Special Investigation Team comprising police officials from the Faridkot district and State Special Operations Cell was constituted, and separate teams were assigned the tasks of visiting the crime scene and collecting physical and digital evidence.

He said the CCTV footage at the crime scene was examined, and teams were deputed to follow the forward and backward linkages of CCTVs to determine the entry and exit routes of the assailants.

Meticulous investigations by the Faridkot district police led to the analysis of the CCTV footage along a 125 km stretch, which helped the police establish the suspects’ movements and develop leads, he said. Mobile tower dumps at strategic locations were obtained and analysed using big data analysis tools, the DGP said.

At the same time, human intelligence was also gathered and developed. A large number of individuals were questioned, and contact was established with persons based abroad to glean intelligence.