Amritpal’s wife, mother grilled over foreign funds

The Punjab Police are still hunting for radical Sikh leader, Amritpal Singh who has managed to give the security mechanism the slip on more than one occasion.

Meanwhile the police questioned Kirandeep Kaur, wife of Amritpal Singh after reports surfaced that she had a role in securing foreign funds.

The police also questioned Amritpal's mother, Balwinder Kaur.

The police said that Kirandeep is an NRI was residing in the United Kingdom. Following a marriage at a modest ceremony, Amritpal Singh had said that his wife would live with him in Punjab.

The Punjab police are looking into the funding that has been running the outfit headed by Amritpal Singh known as Waris Punjab De. This outfit founded by Deep Sidhu who was killed in a car crash was taken over by Amritpal SIngh.

The police and the central agencies are looking into foreign funding that the outfit has been getting. It has been found on numerous occasions that the ISI has been pumping in funds into this outfit, through various networks that are abroad.

Official sources tell OneIndia that the foreign funding network is key to the investigation. If the source of funding becomes clear, it becomes easier to stall the same and once that happens, the movement tends to die down gradually. The source also cited the example of Kashmir, where the separatists were being funded through international channels. Once the Enforcement Directorate and National Investigation Agency tightened the noose around the same, the funds stopped and the movement died largely, the source explained.

Meanwhile the ongoing probe has revealed that Amritpal's outfit had received funding to the tune of Rs 35 crore from foreign countries. This came to light following the arrest of a close of aide of Amritpal who goes by the name, Daljit Singh Kalsi. The money was found in his bank account and the agencies are trying to find the exact source of the same.

Kalsi, it may be recalled was the link between Amritpal and the ISI. He had submitted a memorandum against India with the Pakistan High Commission in Canada.

The police suspect that Kirandeep may have had a bigger role in this entire operation. Her name cropped up when the police and the agencies learnt that she had allegedly garnered funds from foreign shores for the activities of the Waris Punjab De.

Going deeper into the source of funding, it was found that there was a sudden increase in the remittance of money into the accounts of Khalsi. In most of these transactions, it was found that the money came in the form of cash deposits. The pattern of withdrawal according to sources was also suspicious in nature. A large amount to the tune of Rs 4 crore had withdrawn through ATM transactions over a period of time. The transactions were made from 12 different countries.

Meanwhile Amritpal Singh continues to be on the run and has evaded arrest for the past six days, since an operation to nab him had been launched. He has used a Mercedes, an Izuzu, a Ford Endeavour,a bike and not a cart to evade arrest.