Court Acquits UAPA Accused; Police Picks Up Two from 'Darbar Sahib'

A Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar-based special court has acquitted 15 people who were arrested in January 2022 of all charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). They were accused of having procured arms from Pakistan. Nine of the accused were convicted under the Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act. The remaining six have been acquitted of all charges. The maximum sentence in the case is three years, although most of the accused have already spent approximately four years in jail during the trial period. Meanwhile, a Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) team detained two men—Prince and Satvinder Singh—from the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex, Amritsar on 30 Jan. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) objected to the police action, detained members of the CIA team, and confined them to a room for a few hours. A senior SGPC official said that if the police needed to search for or arrest any individual within the Darbar Sahib premises, it was mandatory to inform the SGPC beforehand. He said the police neither took the SGPC into confidence, nor informed its own police post outside Darbar Sahib. In another incident, a taxi driver, Ranjodh Singh’s car collided with another vehicle near Pavilion Mall in Ludhiana on 26 Jan. Ranjodh said the occupants of the other vehicle started abusing and assaulting him and also passed anti-religious remarks after seeing the poster of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (1947–84, prominent Sikh leader) on his vehicle. Following the argument, police detained and tortured Ranjodh. On 30 Jan, people protested the police’s action and blocked the Bharat Nagar Chowk in Ludhiana. The police finally registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the three police personnel for wrongful confinement and torture and another one against the occupants of the other car for indulging in religious hate speech. Concurrently, the Panjab police has arrested the parents of Satinderjeet Singh alias Goldy Brar, Shamsher Singh, and Preetpal Kaur, over allegations of extortion in an FIR dated 3 Dec 2024. The complainant was working in the Education Department and the extortion demand of USD 55K was from the Bambiha gang who worked with Goldy. Since then Goldy and the Bambiha gang have split (earlier coverage).