Khalistan ultra arrested after eluding police for 20 yrs

For 20 years, a suspected Khalistan militant managed to hoodwink police by making them believe that he was killed in a gunbattle but investigations into the escape of an alleged drug lord landed him in police net when sleuths traced him to a Rajasthan town.

Sukhwinder Singh, 45, a suspected militant of Khalistan Commando Force, was apprehended from Jaisalmer on September 26 while his associate Raj Kandola, who escaped from police custody last week, was caught from south Delhi's Mahipalpur yesterday along with his two associates, police said today.

The associates have been identified as Gaganpreet Singh who is claimed to have provided Kandola shelter after he escaped from Delhi Police's custody in Ludhiana on September 25, and Pradeep Kumar who arrived in Delhi to allegedly help Kandola escape from India through Nepal.

S N Srivastava, Special Commissioner (Special Cell), told reporters that investigations into Kandola's escape provided information about Sukhwinder allegedly providing 75 kg of ephedrine for sale.

Kandola, who is also known as 'BMW King', was first arrested from Dwarka on August 11 by Delhi Police allegedly with 411 grams of heroin and other drugs. Police was taking him back to Delhi after a court hearing in Hoshiarpur when he escaped from Ludhiana.

He had also managed to flee in June when Punjab Police had carried out a raid at a drug manufacturing unit in Jalandhar.

After getting information about Sukhwinder's role, Srivastava said, a trail led investigators to Mumbai and Sri Gaganagar, Bikaner and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. Later, Sukhwinder was traced to Ramgarh in Jaisalmer where he owned a farm.

"Police posed themselves as vendors to identify the hideout. There was specific information that he was using a Mahendra jeep. He was arrested from Ramgarh-Longewal road which leads to the border of India and Pakistan," the officer said.

Asked on Kandola, he said the drug lord after his escape from police went to Gaganpreet's residence in Hoshiarpur and the latter provided him at a safe place in Nakodar in Punjab.

"Kandola then directed his associate Pradeep Kumar who owns a stud farm in Italy to come to Delhi as he wanted to escape from India. Pradeep came to India on September 29. The next day, Kandola, Pradeep and Gaganpreet were arrested from Mahipalpur," Srivastava said.

During interrogation, he claimed, Sukhwinder told police that his father was a manager in a PSU. He completed his pre-engineering course from DAV College in Hoshiarpur in 1985.