Amritpal Singh, accused of being a Khalistani sympathizer, and who was on the run for over one month, was finally arrested under the NSA from the Rode village in Moga district of Punjab on Sunday morning, soon after he had offered prayers at a local Gurdwara. The fugitive who had succeeded in evading the law enforcement agencies, surrendered before the authorities. It was later claimed that he was taken into custody following a successful operation of the Intelligence unit and the Rural Amritsar police. The suspect was immediately whisked away to Dibrugarh in Assam, for reasons best known to the officials. Had he been interrogated in Punjab, it could have yielded some kind of results, but from distant Assam, the time factor for the police to corroborate the evidence and statements, may not be an easy task. Incidentally one wonders why all wanted people of Punjab were being sent to Assam, which surely is not the kind of place Andamans was during the British regime. There is a lot of symbolism also which goes with Amritpal’s arrest. He was taken into custody from Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s village, Rode, and obviously the media has been quick to draw similarities between the two extreme elements though this is not an accurate presentation. Bhindranwale was killed during Operation Bluestar after he had started a violent campaign against the then government from inside the Golden Temple complex. He was at one point shown to be the creation of some powerful people in the Congress. In case of Amritpal, he is certainly not a heavyweight despite efforts of the authorities as well as some sections of the press to depict him as that. Many in Punjab, rightly or wrongly consider him to be a product of Intelligence agencies and therefore his arrest has evoked different reactions within the State and outside it. Nationally, he is being shown as someone who was spearheading the Khalistan separatist movement though the police action today did not bring out any sympathy for him. Within Punjab, in its subtle but telling style of humour, there are those who are observing that “what is so sensational about the arrest. He was their man and he has been taken away by them’’, implying that the police had picked up someone who was the creation of the State. Significantly, Amritpal heads a little-known organization, Waris Punjab De, which was founded by the late Deep Sidhu, actor and activist who had hoisted the Nishaan Saheb at the Red Fort on the Republic Day during the farmers agitation. His gaining access to the high security zone was viewed with suspicion, and cynics were convinced that he must have been facilitated by some agency or the other. Sidhu died under mysterious circumstances in a car crash on the Manesar-Kondli expressway in February last year. Amritpal who was a non-entity, subsequently announced that he was the head of Sidhu’s organization. There has been speculation on why Amritpal was given a free run to evade arrest. This had put a big question mark on both the Punjab police as well as the national intelligence agencies. Questions were asked that if the police were sharing his whereabouts with the media, why was it not arresting him. Did it lack pin-pointed intelligence or was all this deliberate? Any parallels with Bhindranwale too are far-fetched. The myth of Bhindranwale was created over a period of time. Amritpal is virtually a nobody and has no mass following though some political parties may try to use his separatist image, created by the media, in politics outside the State of Punjab. In Jallandhar, where the Lok Sabha by-election is taking place, it is unlikely to make any impact. The Jallandhar seat has a large component of Hindu votes in the city which can be a game changer besides the influence of areas such as Nakodar, Kartarpur etc. The Congress is at present having the advantage, though things could change by May 10th when the polling is to take place. The Punjab police should share credible information regarding Amritpal Singh since people are already having reservations about its competence and efficiency. The main issue would always be whether Amritpal was a Frankenstein who can haunt all those who created him.