India Today’s investigative reporter found out that Amritpal Singh’s dera, where he supposedly treated addicts, was not up to scratch as a de-addiction centre in the first place.
Baba Bakala (Amritsar),UPDATED: Mar 23, 2023 20:21 IST
Amritpal Singh has been absconding since Punjab Police launched crackdown against Waris Punjab De. (Photo: Bandeep Singh)
By Nitin Jain: A month after a ruckus broke out in Ajnala, near Amritsar, India Today has uncovered the truth behind Khalistani ideologue Amritpal Singh’s de-addiction campaign in Punjab.
USING DRUG SCOURGE TO BUILD MILITIA
The 30-year-old fugitive appears to have been exploiting the drug epidemic in the state to build his own militia, the Anandpur Khalsa Force or the AKF.
India Today has accessed footage of Amritpal Singh’s supporters allegedly involved in the Ajnala incident being questioned by police.
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Many confessed that they joined his dera, a term for his makeshift rehab centre at his ancestral village, for de-addiction.
“I came here to get rid of drugs,” Amandeep Singh, a 21-year-old follower, is heard telling police while in custody.
Several others also confirmed they were members of his dera.
But a separate video obtained by India Today showed police seizing a stockpile of illegal firearms from their possession.
TURNING ADDICTS INTO MILITANTS
His de-addiction centre was nothing more than a hollow sham, a thin veneer to disguise his plans to plunge Punjab into unrest, DSP Harkrishan Singh handling the Amritpal Singh case in Amritsar district told India Today’s investigative reporter.
Police, he added, believed Amritpal Singh was on a drive to rope addicts into his dreamed-of AKF.
The three letters are also printed in bold at the gate of Amritpal Singh’s village home.
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“Was it a real de-addiction centre?” the reporter asked the DSP.
“No, no. It wasn’t a de-addiction centre at all. He wanted to rope these people in. How could he do that? The people seen with him and those under arrest now are addicts,” the officer replied.
According to the DSP, Amritpal Singh would keep addicts with him. “That’s why he started this de-addiction centre so as to motivate those people to go with him. In fact, he was making the AKF, Anandpur Khalsa Force, in the guise of a de-addiction centre by misleading these innocent people into joining him.”
CLAIMING TO BE AN ANTI-DRUG MESSIAH
Amritpal Singh had been portraying himself as a messiah, out touring villages to wean the youth away from drugs.
In an interview earlier, he issued emotive statements about the addiction scourge in Punjab.
“How much do we enjoy the present times? Our youth are dying every day because of addiction. We were cremating our dead before. We are cremating our dead now,” Amritpal Singh said.
He returned to Punjab from Dubai last year and took formal initiation as a practising Sikh.
Amritpal Singh claimed he came back home with a mission to pull the glut of youth away from drugs.
But his claims now stand dismantled.
BOGUS REHAB CENTRE
India Today’s investigative reporter found out that his dera where he supposedly treated addicts was not up to scratch as a de-addiction centre in the first place.
An addict from Barnala district of Punjab, Rajinder, disclosed that inmates were given random capsules and pills, and were beaten up if they tried to escape.
“There’s no doctor. They would give random pills on their own,” the former inmate told India Today. One was a tiny pill of the size of an ant. “Then there was a red capsule. This big. I took it for five days. I didn’t take it after that.”
“Were inmates beaten up as well?” probed the reporter.
“People were beaten up if they tried to escape. They would be beaten up if caught. We were threatened that if we tried to leave, we’d be beaten up,” Rajinder replied.
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