Police plan Interpol move on USbased SFJ men; fail to get printer’s custody

Raids in J&K, Haryana, too, to nab Khalistani activists

MOHALI,CHANDIGARH: A day after a sedition case against five persons over hoardings at several places in Punjab calling for a separatist ‘Referendum 2020’, police failed to get remand of the printer from a Mohali court on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Police headquarters is in the process of writing to the Union ministry of external affairs (MEA) to get issued a red corner notice from Interpol to arrest three US-based accused, including New York resident Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is legal adviser of the outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) that has called for the referendum essentially on the idea of a separate nation of Khalistan. The two others are Jagdeep Singh and Jagjeet Singh, also from New York.

After chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh issued “strict instructions” to the police to give no laxity to “Khalistani forces sitting outside India”, officials have made “detailed documentation” about seeking the notice. “We have enough leads that the three men were part of other Khalistani, anti-India activities too,” a senior officer said, adding that the communication will be sent “in a day or two”.

Police teams also conducted raids to nab more “Punjab-based Khalistani activists”, who allegedly assisted in spreading SFJ’s campaign whose full title is ‘Punjab Independence Referendum 2020’. Raids are being conducted in Haryana and J&K too.

In Mohali, though, in an embarrassment for the police, a court refused to give them custody of a local resident arrested on Thursday. Instead, the court sent him to judicial custody.

Police had argued that they needed to interrogate Gurpeet Singh, who runs a printing press in Phase 5 of Mohali, to get to Jammu-based Harpunit Singh, the fifth named accused, who allegedly got the hoardings put up on Pannun’s directions.

After police sought Gurpreet's custody for five days, his advocates TS Sudan and Gagan Aggarwal said he was wrongly framed as he had “just business relations with Harpunit Singh and printed hoardings in good faith, not with wrong intention”. He has no relations with the US-based activists, the counsels argued.

They also produced several court orders saying that printing something does not come under ‘sedition’. Also presented were emails that his company exchanged with Harpunit to prove that he was only given a work order for printing material. TORONTO: Gurpatwant Pannun, legal advisor of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), who along with four others was booked for sedition by the Punjab police for launching the separatist ‘Referendum 2020’ campaign in the state, has dismissed the charges, saying they will only promote and legitimise the campaign. Pannun also accused the Punjab chief minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, of acting like a “toddler” and “keeping a grudge against the SFJ for filing a torture case against him in Canada”.

SFJ has sent a letter to the CM office in the civil secretariat, Chandigarh, stating, “Sedition charges will not deter us and we will continue ‘Referendum 2020’ campaign in Punjab from Sikh rights groups’ centralised office in New York.”

Pannun told HT, “I am unfazed by the sedition and other charges as they only promote and give legitimacy to the democratic campaign for Punjab Independence Referendum 2020.”

He said the cases did not matter to him. “I don't recognise the Constitution and judicial systems, and any case filed under them.”

SFJ has repeatedly targeted Punjab CM Amarinder Singh. Last year, when he was scheduled to visit Canada to woo the NRI community, SFJ had filed a case of torture against him in a Toronto court causing the Punjab leader to cancel that trip. These attacks have become more frequent since Singh won a convincing mandate in the assembly elections earlier this year.

Pannun accused the Punjab CM of acting like a “toddler” and said he was “keeping a grudge against the SFJ for filing a torture case in Canada to hold him accountable for human rights violations during his 2002-07 stint as CM, and now by forcing sedition case against me, Punjab CM is of the view that we might back down from our campaign. But as a matter of fact I am more motivated and have resolved to make sure that we take up the torture case against Capt and his police officials in international courts.”