Battle of the Takhts
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Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
Travel vlogger Amrik Singh ‘unreachable' after ‘Jalandhar cops summoned him' over Pakistan trip, alleges wife
The family of travel vlogger Amrik Singh has alleged that he has been in custody for over 18 hours after being called to a Jalandhar police station on Monday evening to provide information about his channel 'Walk With Turna' and his trip to Pakistan last year. The police, meanwhile, are yet to confirm that he was taken into custody. Amrik runs the YouTube channel along with his wife Manpreet Kaur. According to Manpreet, he was summoned in connection with their December 2024 trip to Pakistan during which they filmed videos covering Sikh religious sites and other soft stories. Manpreet added that on Tuesday morning, the police informed the family that no First Information Report (FIR) had been registered against Amrik, and he was only questioned. Since Operation Sindoor, several YouTubers who have travelled to Pakistan or have any links with the country have reportedly been under the scrutiny of investigating agencies. Asked about Amrik's whereabouts, Harvinder Singh Virk, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Jalandhar Rural, did not confirm whether he was in police custody but said he would provide an update if any action was taken against the vlogger. The couple, both former journalists with experience in print and electronic media, have been actively running their channel since 2022. They have previously produced travel content from Iran, Afghanistan, Dubai, and other West Asian destinations. 'Phone got switched off after he reached police station' Manpreet said Amrik left for the police station around 5.30 pm on Monday and called her to confirm that he had reached and was recording his statement. 'After that, his phone got switched off,' she added. 'It was switched on again at 8.30 pm, and the messages I had sent to him got delivered.' However, Manpreet alleges that later in the evening, about 10 policemen — one in uniform and the others in civilian clothes — arrived at their home in Turna village and began asking about Amrik and the YouTube channel. 'We told them that he had already gone to Lohian police station,' she said. She further claimed that around 10.30 pm, two policemen from Lohia station, one of them allegedly drunk, came to their residence. 'They kept knocking and demanded that we open the door. We were scared because we did not know if they were really the police,' she said. 'When we finally opened it, they entered and asked for our laptop. I told them we did not have one and that we do all the work on the phone. Then they took our official mobile phone used for work.' Since then, Manpreet said, there has been no information about her husband's whereabouts. 'Our family members even went to the police station, but they were told Amrik was not there and had been taken to some other place for questioning,' she said. 'We are not criminals — we are simple people who travel across India and abroad to shoot videos for our work. The purpose of visiting Pakistan was to cover historical places related to Sikhism.' Manpreet said they are open to any investigation by the police, 'but at least we should know the whereabouts of (Amrik).'
NDTV
3 hours ago
- NDTV
'Lawrence Bishnoi Gang Must Be Called 'Terrorist Group'': Canada MP's Demand
New Delhi: Canadian MP Frank Caputo on Monday urged Prime Minister Mark Carney and the governing Liberal Party to declare the Lawrence Bishnoi gang a 'terrorist organisation'. "Communities are being terrorised... it is time for the Liberals to act..." he said on X late last night. Mr Caputo, the Shadow Minister for Public Safety, joined a growing number of Canadian leaders who have called for action against Bishnoi's gang, which he runs from a prison cell in Gujarat. In a letter to his cabinet counterpart, Gary Anandasangaree, Mr Caputo highlighted Bishnoi's vast criminal empire and said it was guilty of assassinations and the extortion of Canadian citizens, and engaged in such illegal activities for "political, religious, and ideological reasons". "The Bishnoi gang's activities lay the groundwork for listing it as a terrorist entity. As you know, they have taken credit for vast violence in Canada and abroad," he said in the letter shared on X. BREAKING Conservatives call on the Liberals to designate the Lawrence Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist organization. Communities are being terrorized. It's time for the Liberals to act. My letter👇🏼. — Frank Caputo (@FrankCaputoKTN) August 11, 2025 "I implore you to list the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist entity to provide law enforcement and all levels of government with the tools necessary to address the gang's activities. The designation would permit a push back against the gang with financial, criminal, and property sanctions." He also pointed to similar appeals by four other Canadian politicians, including Patrick Brown, the Mayor of Brampton, home to about 20 per cent of the country's entire Sikh population. British Columbia Premier David Eby and his Alberta counterpart, Danielle Smith, as well as Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, have also called for the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to be taken down. "... there is clear political consensus for the federal government to do so. This designation has been discussed by law enforcement officials, who see first-hand the results of the Bishnoi gang's reign of terror in the South Asian community and throughout Canada," Mr Caputo wrote. In June, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the Bishnoi gang's "violent and criminal activities... knows no boundaries and respects no borders", and demanded Mark Carney's government send "a clear message - that you (the Lawrence Bishnoi gang) are not welcome here". She said designating the Bishnoi gang as a 'terrorist entity' would 'allow provincial and municipal-level law enforcement agencies to access tools and resources needed to effectively disrupt operations...' The Canadian government has frequently named the Bishnoi gang as one of the more nefarious criminal syndicates in that country, and has also linked it to arms and drugs trafficking. Lawrence Bishnoi - who has split from Goldy Brar, an associate who ran his Canada ops - and his gang of criminals and assassins have also been linked to various murders both in India and abroad since the headline-grabbing killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in May 2022. That list includes the December 2023 murder of Rajput leader Sukhdev Gogamedi and the October 2024 killing of Maharashtra politician Baba Siddique, as well as firing outside the home of Bollywood star Salman Khan - targeted over the 1999 blackbuck case - in April 2025. READ | Trudeau Doubles Down On Charges Amid India-Canada Diplomatic Row But it was the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistani figure, in June 2023 that cemented the gang's international 'credentials'. Nijjar was a Canadian citizen and his killing sparked a diplomatic row; then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claiming - without any proof - the Indian government was involved. India trashed the charges, and accused Mr Trudeau of pandering to Khalistani terrorist vote banks. India-Canada ties nosedived as a result and are only now, after Mr Trudeau was removed, recovering. And the chorus of voices calling for action against the Bishnoi gang - something India often asked of Mr Trudeau - has been seen as a sign the Conservative is looking to push for mending of ties with India.
Hindustan Times
6 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
1984 anti-Sikh riots case: Delhi HC overturns verdict freeing 4 people, orders retrial
The Delhi High Court has overturned a 40-year-old verdict that had acquitted four individuals in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and ordered a retrial, observing that the earlier proceedings were conducted in a 'hasty manner' and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) failed to undertake sufficient efforts to collect the evidence. The bench was acting on a plea initiated on its own to determine the correctiveness of the 1986 verdict. (Delhi HC website) The case pertained to the killing of a Sikh man in Ghaziabad's Raj Nagar area, a day after then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination. The man's wife had alleged that certain persons attacked and set her husband and her house on fire, resulting in his death. However, in May 1986, the trial court acquitted the four accused of charges of arson and murder, citing contradictions between the woman's statements to the police and in court, as well as the delay in filing the complaint. A bench of justices Subramanian Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar was acting on a petition initiated on its own to determine the correctiveness of the 1986 verdict, after it prima facie found fault in the manner of investigation and termed it as 'perfunctory.' The proceedings were initiated, after the court observed that the same was being cited in appeals filed by five individuals — including Khokhar, Captain Bhagmal, and Girdhari Lal, Mahender Yadav, Balwan's brother Krishan Khokhar— against a 2013 trial court ruling that convicted them in the murders involving five Sikhs in the same locality and neither the state nor the victims had appealed the 1986 verdict. Also Read: Delhi HC orders reconstruction of 1984 anti-Sikh riots case records to ensure fair trial The bench in its verdict delivered on Monday, observed that the trial court's erroneous decision resulted in 'miscarriage of justice to the man's wife and children and deprived them of their fundamental right to 'fair trial.' The CBI the court said in its 48-page ruling, also failed to undertake efforts for tracing the deceased's corpse coupled with the articles stolen from the house and failure to order 're investigation' 40 years after the incident, would result in turning a Nelson's eye to the society's needs and victim's rights of a 'comprehensive free and fair probe.' The judges said that trial court 'gravely erred' in concluding that there existed a contradiction in the woman's testimony, there was enough material available to impeach her testimony and the CBI while probing the matter failed to undertake 'sufficient efforts' to associate all natural witnesses during investigation, including the deceased's children who were present at the time of the incident and any neighbours. 'These errors have resulted in miscarriage of justice which is evident from the fact that a grave offence of murder and arson with communal overtones has neither been investigated properly by the Investigating Agency, nor tried in right stead by the Ld. Additional Sessions Judge. Resultantly, the victims, including the wife and children of the deceased Harbhajan Singh, have been deprived of their valuable fundamental right under Article 21 to a fair investigation and trial which if not rectified may result in a loss of hope in our legal system and compromise the interests of society,' the bench said. It added, 'As rightly stated by the Ld. Amicus Curiae, a bloodbath took place after the assassination of late Ms. Indira Gandhi, and as a result of the violence, widows, children and persons residing in the vicinity ran away for their safety and took shelter elsewhere, which naturally meant they would not have been readily available for investigation. That, however, would not absolve the Investigating Agency of its duty to make sure that the best evidence was gathered by taking recourse to the powers accorded under the CrPC, so that any gaps in the evidence could not be misused subsequently at trial by accused persons to get off the hook.' Amicus curiae and senior advocate Vivek Sood submitted that the conclusion arrived by the additional sessions judge (ASJ) while acquitting the men was totally perverse, and deserved to be set aside. He submitted that the incident resulted in large scale violence, devastation of property, and displacement of affected persons and the complainant was forced to leave Delhi following her husband's death and loss of her residence. While the counsel for the sole surviving accused, no useful purpose would be served in remanding the matter back to the Trial Court or directing any further re-investigation/fresh investigation. The court in its verdict however clarified that the retrial only pertained to the sole surviving accused and abated against the three individuals who passed away and directed the CBI to expeditiously conclude the probe, taking note of the incident's date of occurrence. The same bench in a different ruling, had also ordered the reconstruction of four-decade-old trial records in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, saying the victims' and society's right to a fair investigation and trial cannot be compromised by missing files or flawed earlier proceedings. The directive, issued to the trial court, concerns the acquittal of five men including former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar in the killing of four Sikhs in Ghaziabad's Raj Nagar.
