On trail of Amritpal Singh, his aide Papalpreet Singh, Punjab cops search deras

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, March 31

The Punjab Police are learnt to have intensified their search in deras and gurdwaras of the region as it has now been established that after fugitive Amritpal Singh and his aide Papalpreet Singh gave the Punjab Police the slip on March 18, the duo has been using religious places as their hideouts.

Hideouts

• 7 deras, gurdwaras used by them so far to hide
• These include five in Punjab and one each in UP & U’khand

The fugitives have been using these places to get shelter, vehicles, clothes, phones and SIM cards as Papalpreet has personal contacts at gurdwaras and deras.

Interestingly, none of these gurdwaras is on highway. At least seven deras or gurdwaras have been used by Amritpal and Papalpreet so far, including five from Punjab and one each from UP and Uttarakhand. Right after the chase started on March 18, the duo went to a gurdwara at Nangal Ambian in Shahkot to have food and Western-style clothes before escaping on bikes. Their next halt was Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Sheikhupur village, Phillaur. The granthi’s son had taken them on his bike and dropped them on Ludhiana side.

On March 19 and 20, they stayed at two houses of women who were Amritpal’s contacts in Patiala, Shahbad and Delhi. As they moved to Pilibhit in UP and Uttarakhand, their stopovers were again Sikh deras and gurdwaras. The authorities at Uttarakhand gurdwara, affiliated to Hazur Sahib, even provided a vehicle for their return to Punjab as soon as they got the news report that Akal Takht Jathedar had decided to come in their support. They reportedly reached Nadalon dera in Hoshiarpur in that vehicle on Monday last (March 27).

From Hoshiarpur, they shifted to a dera in Saproad village of Phagwara. On Wednesday (March 28) evening, they again moved towards Hoshiarpur for an interview in Innova. This vehicle too had been provided by another dera affiliated to Hazur Sahib.

They once again used another dera of Hoshiarpur to hide. While the police kept searching for them in the same village as they had run on foot, they quietly spent a night in the dera. Policemen said that they regret not having checked the adjoining deras that day.