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The arrest came days after, Amritpal Singh’s wife Kirandeep Kaur was stopped from boarding a flight to London at the Sri Guru Ram Dass International Airport in Amritsar, on Thursday.

She was questioned by the immigration authorities and some other officials for more than three hours and thereafter, asked to return along with some relatives who had come to see her off at the airport.

Singh married Kaur, a UK-based Non-Resident Indian, on February 10.

The crackdown against Amritpal began on March 18 and members of his outfit ‘Waris Punjab De.’ He however, escaped the police dragnet twice — first on March 18 in Jalandhar district by switching vehicles and then again on March 28 in Hoshiarpur when he returned to Punjab along with his key associate Papalpreet Singh.

Papalpreet, who is considered to be Amritpal’s mentor and who has allegedly been in contact with Pakistan’s ISI, has been arrested.

Several cases have been lodged against the Khalistan sympathizer and his associates for allegedly spreading disharmony, attempt to murder, attack on police personnel and obstructing the lawful discharge of duty by public servants.

Despite being sighted in several CCTV footage and photos with changed appearances at many places, including Patiala, Kurukshetra and Delhi, the radical preacher continued to hoodwink the police.

While on the run, two videos and one audio clip of Amritpal surfaced on social media. In one of his two videos, which surfaced on March 30, Amritpal asserted that he was not a fugitive and would soon appear.

The pro-Khalistan preacher had claimed that he was not like those who would flee the country. There were rumours that Amritpal might surrender on Baisakhi at Takht Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda, but that did not happen.

Recently, Punjab Police pasted posters of Amritpal at railway stations in Batala and Amritsar, announcing that an appropriate reward will be given to anyone who provides credible information about his whereabouts.

On April 15, police managed to nab Amritpal’s close aide Joga Singh from Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib. According to them, Joga Singh was in direct contact with Amritpal and had even arranged a shelter and vehicles for him in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit.

It was Joga Singh who brought Amritpal and his aide Papalpreet back to Punjab on March 28.

Nine of Amritpal’s aides — Daljit Singh Kalsi, Papalpreet Singh, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, Varinder Singh Johal, Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala, Harjit Singh, Bhagwant Singh, Basant Singh and Gurinderpal Singh Aujla — have been lodged in Dibrugarh jail in Assam and charged under the stringent National Security Act.

The 29-year-old Amritpal Singh was last year anointed the head of ‘Waris Punjab De’, the organisation founded by actor and activist Deep Sidhu in February last year.

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