Harminder Singh Mintoo, the Khalistan Liberation Force chief, who escaped from Punjab’s high-security Nabha prison on Sunday along with five others, was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell near the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station here on Monday.
A semi-automatic pistol and six live cartridges along with three notes of Rs. 2,000 were allegedly seized from him. A search is on to nab Kashmira Singh, a fellow fugitive, who had also come to the Capital with Mintoo.
In a related development, two persons were arrested in Dehradun in connection with the jailbreak. Adiya and Gita were arrested for providing logistical support to the alleged mastermind of the operation, Parminder Singh Penda. Penda was arrested in U.P.’s Shamli district with a huge cache of arms on Sunday.
Penda was produced before a local court in Kairana on Monday, which remanded him in 14 days police custody.
Meanwhile, two cars used in the escape have been found in Haryana’s Kaithal district.
According to Delhi Police, Mintoo planned to escape to Goa via Mumbai and had even purchased a train ticket to Panvel. He was arrested at the parking lot of Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station despite having changed his appearance by cutting his hair and trimming his beard, the police said.
Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said: “He was arrested in the early hours of Monday. He had purchased the ticket at the railway station and was scheduled to travel by the Goa Express later in the day. He was planning to flee the country from Goa, where he has good logistical support, having lived there for 18 years.” The police said during the interrogation, Mintoo said he was to travel to Nepal from Goa and then on to London via Malaysia.
The police said during the interrogation, Mintoo said he was to travel to Nepal from Goa and then on to London via Malaysia.
Detailing the events that led to the arrest, Mr. Deep said: “Mintoo, Kashmira, Gurpreet Sekhon and Penda had left the jail in the same Fortuner car.
Mintoo and Kashmira got down at Kaithal where they changed their appearance in a bid to dodge the police. Their next destination was Kurukshetra where they travelled in a jeep before proceeding to Panipat in a bus. They took another bus from Panipat to Delhi where they split up.”
Punjab DGP Suresh Arora said Mintoo was in touch with terror groups in Pakistan, an angle the Delhi Police are also probing.
Dismissing reports that Mintoo tagged along with the group that had come to free the others, the police said he had actively participated in the jailbreak.
At least five armed men in police uniform had stormed the Nabha jail on Sunday morning and escaped with six prisoners, including Mintoo, after opening indiscriminate fire at the jail staff. The six were driven away in four different vehicles.
( With Kavita Upadhyay in Dehradun and Mohammad Ali in Meerut )
Published - November 28, 2016 10:12 am IST
