No police challan in 90 days; man held for links with Oz Khalistani outfit gets bail
Three months after the local police arrested two men from Kotkapura on May 10, claiming that they were radicals and had the backing of an Australia-based Khalistani outfit, on May 10, one of them, Sandeep Singh, 26, of Bangi Nihal Singh village in Bathinda, got bail last week.
The reason: Police have failed to file a charge-sheet in court within the stipulated 90 days. The me been booked for unlawful activities and under the Arms Act.
The police had also recovered two .30 bore pistols and 40 cartridges from their possession. The second accused is Amar Singh, 48, of Sirsa district in Haryana.
At the time, the Faridkot Police had said that the Khalistani handlers had supplied the weapons to the men. “The men and the Khalistani handlers were in touch through social media and encrypted calls,” a police official had said.
“During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they were in touch with Gurjant Singh, based in Australia, who has been indulging in a “radicalisation” drive over Facebook. Gurjant also runs an organisation called International Sikh Federation,” the police had added.
The naming of Gurjant, as running such a radicalisation drive, by the two men had supported the police investigation theory in Bargari sacrilege of two ‘radicalised’ brothers of Faridkot, Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, of being behind the desecration.
Police had also claimed that Gurjant was involved in financing a Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) terror module that carried out eight targeted attacks/killings in Punjab between January 2016 and October 2017.
The case against the two men was registered under sections 17/18/19/20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Ordinance, 2004, and Section 25 of the Arms Act at the City Police Station in Kotkapura.
POLICE GET 60 MORE DAYS TO FILE CHALLAN
Stunned by the grant of bail to Sandeep, police moved an application in court seeking extension in the date to file challan in the case on August 13. On August 14, the court granted 60 more days to do so.
The bail plea of the second accused, Amar Singh, was rejected.
Kotkapura DSP Manwinderbir Singh said, “The case file has been sent for the approval of the home department. We will file the challan once we get the nod. The court has also been informed about it.”