Amritpal Singh, 4 others spent 45 mins at granthi’s house

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, March 21

On Saturday afternoon, when the police and central forces were chasing pro-Khalistan activist Amritpal Singh, he was sitting in the house of Nangal Ambian gurdwara granthi Ranjit Singh in Shahkot. He remained there for more than 45 minutes.

The house in the gurdwara complex, where Amritpal and his four followers relaxed and had food, was just about 10 km away from Bulandpuri gurdwara where a heavy police force remained deployed following the incident.

In a dark pink turban, peach-coloured shirt, trousers and sunglasses, Amritpal fled the place riding pillion on a bike belonging to the granthi’s son Jatinder Singh. A large black and white jacket, which Amritpal wore, belonged to Ranjit.

“Without seeking our permission, they started picking Jatinder’s clothes from his cupboard. They even removed their blue and saffron turbans and wore the common turbans of my son. They asked me if I had food ready to be served. We had enough food prepared for some guests coming at our place for the matrimonial purposes of my son. Soon, some youths came on bikes and they (Amritpal and others) left with them. The Brezza car, in which they had come, was taken away by another local youth,” said a visibly scared Narinder Kaur, wife of Ranjit Singh.

Narinder Kaur said, “It was a mixed feeling for us to see all this happen before us. They came asking us if it was Sandeep’s village (kabaddi player Sandeep Nangal Ambian, who was shot last year). When I said yes, they came in. They used the washroom outside the gurdwara, washed their hands and went inside for prayers. We all three were present and when saw them, we were surprised to see such a big man coming to a small gurdwara of our village. Then one of them came inside our house and changed his clothes, and the others carrying heavy weapons followed suit. We were quite scared. While they were changing clothes, they told us that they were going to the Muktsar side for a programme but they were being stopped. We could not muster the courage to ask more questions,” she said.

Narinder Kaur said she and her family were unaware of any police chase until 4:30 pm. “They left our place around 1:45 pm and we got engaged in household chores. The Internet was not working. It was later when we switched on the TV set that we got to know what was going on. Till this morning, we were quietly sitting in our house, not talking to anyone of what had happened. We got so much scared that if we would share anything with anyone or even the police, Amritpal and his men, who could be hiding around somewhere near our house, could return and take revenge for sharing this information.”

When finally the police got to know of this, they came to the gurdwara. “We have shared everything with the police. They have taken my father to the police station for recording his statement,” said Jatinder Singh.

Brezza used by him found in Shahkot

• The Brezza car in which Amritpal escaped after switching over from his Mercedes, was reportedly fonud at Balnau village in Shahkot
• The car was reportedly parked by a youth, who helped Amritpal escape on a motorcycle
• The car is learnt to be owned by Papalpreet, a scribe from Kathu Nangal.

FIR against uncle

A fresh FIR has been lodged against Amritpal’s uncle Harjit Singh and his driver Harpreet Singh for taking shelter at the house of Sarpanch Manpreet Singh on gunpoint.

Changed cars to dodge police team

• From CCTV footage of Chak Bahmanian village on the Shahkot-Moga highway, it comes to the fore that Amritpal was first travelling in the Mercedes but shifted to Brezza when he returned to the Shahkot side via the same toll crossing minutes later.
• The police kept chasing the Mercedes. Those travelling in the Brezza included Papalpreet and some local boys, who guided him through the narrow lanes. The police did not trace them as they had no idea that he had changed his car