The Punjab Police on Friday named jailed pro-Khalistan activist and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, along with two persons based in Canada, for the October 9 killing of Sikh activist Gurpreet Singh in Hari Nau village, Faridkot.
Amidst the worsening ties between India and Canada, it has been found that Karamveer Gora based in Canada and gangster-terrorist Arshdeep Singh Dala were the handlers of the four shooters who killed Gurpreet, said DGP Gaurav Yadav.
The DGP said Gora and Dala were in regular contact with the shooters. He said that three people involved in the murder have been arrested and a manhunt is going on to nab four shooters.
The murder was carried out at the behest of Amritpal Singh, currently lodged in Dibrugarh Jail, Assam, while the Canada-based handlers planned and executed the killing in Punjab, Yadav added. This group was planning more killings as well, said Yadav.
Gurpreet was a close friend of Amritpal Singh from his Dubai days. Gurpreet was among the nine primary members, who formed the Waris Punjab De political group for the Sikhs, led by actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu in September 2021.
One month after Deep Sidhu's death in a road accident, Amritpal Singh took over the mantle of presiding over the outfit. Gurpreet Singh was among those who participated in the movement for justice for Krishan Bhagwan Singh, who raised their voices against incidents of sacrilege and lost their lives in the Behbal Kalan police firing incident on October 14, 2015.
The DGP said those arrested have been identified as Bilal Ahmed, alias Fauji; Guramardeep Singh, alias Pontu; and Arshdeep Singh, alias Jhandu. Yadav said different modules were used for reconnaissance and murder with separate handlers based abroad. He added that cut-outs were used by the criminals to mask the conspiracy.
"The three persons arrested constituted the reconnaissance module, operated by Canada-based Karamveer Singh alias Gora. The reconnaissance module passed on crucial information to the shooter module through their handlers and cutouts," he said.
Sharing the details of the operation, the DGP said acting swiftly, a Special Investigation Team constituted with officials from Faridkot district and State Special Operations Cell, which was bifurcated into two teams that visited the crime site and collected physical and digital evidence.
The CCTV footage at the spot was also scanned, and teams were deputed to follow the forward and backward linkages of CCTVs to determine entry and exit routes of the assailants.
The DGP said the Faridkot district police conducted meticulous investigations that led to CCTV footage analysis in a 125 km stretch, which enabled them to pin down the movements of the suspects and developed leads. He said mobile tower dumps at strategic locations were brought to the book and analyzed with the help of big data analysis tools.
Almost at the same time, human intelligence was also collected and cultivated. There were thousands of interrogations and contacts created with people abroad to collect human intelligence.
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