Cops arrest 3 from Punjab, say one got Rs 25K from abroad (original) (raw)

Una Superintendent of Police Arjit Sen identified the accused as Phool Chand (26), Arjinder Singh (28) and Harry (21). They have been brought to the Chintpurni police station after their arrest.

The Himachal Pradesh Police Sunday claimed to have arrested three youths for writing pro-Khalistan slogans near Mata Chintpurni Temple in Una district on November 29. The accused, a senior police officer said, were nabbed from Dhesiya and Surja villages in Punjab’s Jalandhar district.

Una Superintendent of Police Arjit Sen identified the accused as Phool Chand (26), Arjinder Singh (28) and Harry (21). They have been brought to the Chintpurni police station after their arrest.

As per the police, an amount of Rs 25,000 was deposited in the account of one of the three accused from a foreign nation. The accused was promised another Rs 25,000 after the task was done. The other two youths had accompanied the main accused, police said, adding further investigation is underway.

The accused had written Khalistan Zindabad and Himachal Banega Khalistan slogans on the walls in the vicinity of Mata Chintpurni Temple.

Earlier, a video of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a designated terrorist and the chief of the outlawed outfit Sikhs For Justice, had surfaced on the internet in which he was seen showing the graffiti on the walls and saying that the Congress leaders allegedly involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots would not be spared.

This was not the first time that such an incident has been witnessed in the state. On May 7 last year, pro-Khalistan banners and graffiti were hoisted on the outer boundary of the Vidhan Sabha in Dharamshala.

A case under sections 153-A and 153-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 3 of the HP Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, 1985, has been registered in the matter.