A Nawanshahr court on Saturday sent to judicial custody a Sikh youth sentenced to life in prison for waging war against the state, rejecting a police appeal seeking five more days’ remand in connection with a fresh case lodged against him under the Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Advertising The Nawanshahr police had registered the fresh FIR against the youth — Arvinder Singh, 29 — and three other accused on February 5. Arvinder was taken into police remand on February 10 for a week. Arvinder Singh and two others had been held guilty and sentenced to life term on the basis of books, literature and pamphlets recovered from them following their arrest in 2016. However, the court had acquitted them under UAPA, which means that they were not members of any unlawful association, said his lawyer Kulwinder Kaur. On Saturday, police asked for five more days’ remand claiming that Arvinder was not cooperating them. However, Kaur, argued that a week was enough time to question an accused who is in police custody 24×7, and lodged in the high-security Nabha Jail for the past 32 months. She further questioned how he could be responsible for things happening outside the prison when he was behind bars. According to the fresh FIR, one Gurdeep Singh, arrested on January 17 this year under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, had claimed during questioning that Arvinder alias Mittha Singh of Pallian Khurad village, had helped him get a pistol and six live cartridges from New Delhi take the work of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) — a banned terrorist body since early 2000 — ahead and take “revenge” over incidents of sacrilege in Saroya and Bichhodi villages. Kaur argued that the claim is false as the incidents took place in January 2017 and June 2018, when Arvinder was lodged in Nabha jail, and had never come either on bail or parole. Senior Punjab and Haryana High Court advocate Rajwinder Singh Bains also said police should clarify how Arvinder had been in contact with the other accused if he was in jail. Advertising Kaur argued that police were trying to trap Arvinder in a false case to strengthen the sedition case. The next hearing has been fixed for March 2.

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