A United States military plane carrying the second of 119 Indian deportees landed in Amritsar on Saturday. Among those 119 deportees, two were immediately arrested upon landing by the Punjab Police. The reason? – They were wanted in a murder case back home in Punjab’s Patiala.
The two detainees – Sandeep and Pradeep – are cousins and were wanted in a murder case filed in 2023 in Patiala district’s Rajpura town, said the police. A team of Patiala police arrested them as they landed at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ramdas Airport on Saturday.
Both the accused hailed from Rajpura town and had already been declared proclaimed offenders in the murder case, said the police.
The police also added that both the accused were booked under section 302, 307, 323, 506, 148 and 149 of Indian Penal Code by Patiala Police in murder case registered on June 26, 2023. However, police officials said they hadn’t issued a ‘Look Out Circular’ against the two.
Crackdown on Indian immigrants in the US
The US military plane carrying the second batch of 119 Indian deportees, after the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, landed in Amritsar late Saturday night.
Out of the 119 deportees, 67 were from Punjab and 33 from Haryana, said officials. Of the remaining, eight were from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
At the Amritsar airport on Saturday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann expressed discontent over the US flights carrying Indian deportees landing in Amritsar. “Do not make our holy city (Amritsar) a deport centre…Amritsar is known for the Golden Temple, Durgiana Mandir, Ram Tirath temple, Jallianwala Bagh and Gobindgarh Fort. Will they allow landing (of deportation flights) at Vatican City, if they (deportees) hail from there?” he said while talking to reporters.
The first batch of 104 Indian deportees from the US were flown in a military plane to India on February 5. That flight had also landed at Amritsar Airport.