Chandigarh: Amritpal Singh, the head of Waris Punjab De organisation, is on the run for the fourth day. Punjab Police is looking for him across the state. Meanwhile, eight NIA teams have reached Punjab and these teams have started investigations in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar districts.
Likewise, a plea in Amritpal case will be held in the Punjab and Haryana High Court today as his supporters claimed that Singh was already been arrested and will be produced before the Court. His father alleges that the police have kept him in their custody illegally.
Police have claimed that Amritpal had links with the drug mafia. He was in touch with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI to create a separate Sikh country. The drug mafia was funding him. The mafia also gifted him a Mercedes.
At the same time, ISI was providing him arms, ammunition and other facilities. It is said that the SUV from which Amritpal Singh escaped was gifted by drug mafia Ravel Singh, sources said.
The NIA team is probing weapons, links from abroad, funding and links to the ISI. The Punjab Police has identified 458 close associates of Amritpal Singh and handed over their list to the NIA. These are divided into A, B and C categories. There are 142 people in category A who used to live with Amritpal for 24 hours.
In category B, there were 213 people who looked after finance and organization work.
Six finance companies in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr have been identified in which transactions worth crores of rupees have taken place since August 20 last year. Two jalandhar-based hawala traders have also been identified and a search is on for them. At the same time, 28 teams of Punjab Police and Counter Intelligence, Anti Gangsters Task Force are also engaged in the investigation.
Investigations so far have revealed that Amritpal had purchased 33 bulletproof jackets for the Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF) that he had formed. They were imported from Delhi. The AKF mark was also made on these jackets.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is preparing to simultaneously attack Amritpal’s network spread across the country. His supporters are in 9 states. Therefore, the police of these states have been kept on alert. The mobile location has been traced, sources said.