New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) A Sikh militant, who was declared dead 20 years ago, was arrested with three other militants by the Special Cell of Delhi Police, an official said Monday. He added that a drug trafficking racket was also busted.
The militant, Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukhi, 45, resident of Hoshiarpur in Punjab, was arrested Sep 26 from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on the Ramgarh-Longewala road, which leads to the Pakistan border.
Three other militants – Ranjit Singh alias Raja Kandola, the kingpin of a drug cartel in Punjab, Gaganpreet Singh and Pradeep Kumar – were arrested from a guest-house in Delhi’s Mahipalpur Sunday with 3.80 grams methcolon, 10 grams ephedrine and other incriminating material.
Sukhwinder, who was declared dead in 1992, joined banned militant outfit International Sikh Youth Federation in 1986 and then joined Khalistan Commando Force (KCF). He is involved in several cases of murder, cases under the Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and the Terrorist Disruptive Prevention Act in Punjab.
“He was first arrested in 1987 for anti-national activities and was released from jail in 1990. To escape prosecution, he managed to declare himself dead in 1992,” said S.N. Srivastava, special commissioner of police.
“He went underground in 1995 and got a fake passport as Harjit Singh Khalon. He started a transport business in Jalandhar, and then a tour and travel company,” said the officer.
In 2011, Sukhwinder met Raja Kandola, who was arrested by Delhi Police on August 2012. Kandola had fled from custody on the intervening night of Sep 24-25, 2012, from Punjab railway station while he was being taken from Delhi’s Tihar jail to Punjab’s Hoshiarpur.
Investigations revealed that Sukhwinder provided 75 kg ephedrine to Kandola from a contact in Punjab.
Between 2002 and 2007, Kandola was involved in human trafficking and had served several jail terms.
In 2012, Kandola met Juan Milan, a Serbian national, and started converting ephedrine into methametaphine.
“He procured raw ephedrine from Sukhwinder and converted it into methametaphine. The manufacturing unit was in Punjab, which was unearthed by Punjab Police in June 2012,” the officer said.
Ganganpreet Singh and Pradeep Kumar are Kandola’s associates. They had come to Delhi Sep 29 to go to Nepal but were arrested along with Kandola.
