Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh is still untraceable and the Punjab Police are conducting massive operations to arrest the self-proclaimed Sikh preacher. The security in the state has been beefed up to arrest the Waris Punjab De chief.

Amritpal Singh’s close aide Daljeet Singh Kalsi, who handles the Khalistani leader’s finance, has also been arrested from Haryana’s Gurgaon.

The Punjab Police on Sunday morning arrested 78 members of the Waris Punjab De chief, headed by Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh after the death of its founder and actor Deep Sidhu last year in a car accident.

Four of his top arrested aides were flown to Assam’s Dibrugarh by a special craft and are likely to be kept in the high-security Dibrugarh Central Jail.

Amid Punjab Police’s crackdown on the radical Sikh leader, the internet suspension across the state has been extended for another 24 hours to prevent the spread of misinformation and rumours through social media.

The Department of Home Affairs and Justice, Punjab, said all mobile internet services, all SMS services (except banking & mobile recharge) and all dongle services provided on mobile networks, except the voice call, in the territorial jurisdiction of Punjab suspended till March 20, 12 noon, in the interest of public safety.

In the latest development, the Punjab Police have seized 2 cars of Amritpal Singh and recovered a number of weapons. The state police also reached the residence of the Khalistani leader today morning and conducted the search, however, they didn’t find anything illegal, claims Amritpal Singh’s father Tarsem Singh.

The police have been questioning Tarsem Singh about his son’s whereabouts. Tarsem said he doesn’t have the correct information about him. The police should have arrested him when he left the house in the morning, he added.

Tarsem also told the media that the police have asked the family to tell Amritpal to surrender. He called the police action unjustified and said his son was weaning the youth off drugs.

The Assam government on Sunday suspended the IAS officer Sewali Devi Sharma in connection with the alleged financial irregularities and misappropriation of funds. Sharma was working as a secretary to the Assam government’s Agriculture Department.

As per the official notification, Sewali Devi Sharma opened five bank accounts without the approval of the Assam government during her tenure as the Executive cum Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT).

It was also reported that FRBM rules were not followed in respect of those five bank accounts. The notification further stated that a report of enquiry on the functioning of ODL under SCERT found financial irregularities and very credible references to the misappropriation of funds.

The Joint Secretary of the Assam Government signed the notification stating that Sharma has been suspended from the post of Secretary of Assam’s Agriculture Department with immediate effect. Sewali Devi Sharma’s suspension is placed under rule 3(1) of the All India Services (Disciple and Appeal) Rules, 1969.

The Assam government has also suspended Assam Civil Service (ACS) officers for alleged financial irregularities in the execution of projects under the MP Local Area Development Fund.

The officers who are suspended are Assam’s Home and Political Department Secretary Sharmistha Borah, Additional Commissioner of Kamrup Metropolitan Sukandya Borah, Hemanta Kumar Dutta, Tinsukia Zila Parishad CEO Munindra Bordoloi. According to the reports, all the accused have been placed under immediate suspension, pending the drawal of departmental proceedings.

The report stated that Rs 28 lakhs were allocated from the Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan’s MPLAD Fund for the construction of three roads in Barpeta, however, no roads were constructed and the funds that were allocated were withdrawn by submitting fake road construction bills.

The Covid cases in India are once again rising and creating fears of another lockdown. India on Sunday recorded 526 cases taking the total active cases tally to 5,915.

According to the Union Health Ministry, two people, each from Rajasthan and Maharashtra, died due to the contagious viral disease. The death toll has crossed 5.3 lakh.

The active cases now comprise 0.01 percent of the total cases, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.8 percent. The case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 percent, as stated by the Health Ministry.

Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh recorded the most number of Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

Maharashtra reported 135 cases while Jharkhand logged 134 cases in a single day, followed by Kerala, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh with 90, 42, and 37 cases respectively.

According to the ministry’s website, 220.65 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide coronavirus vaccination drive.

On Saturday, there has been a significant jump in single-day Covid-19 cases as 843 fresh infections were reported, the highest after 126 days. Jharkhand and Maharashtra have reported one death each earlier.

There had been a massive rise in Covid-19 cases on Saturday as the country reported 843 new cases. This was the highest after 126 days. Jharkhand and Maharashtra reported one death each yesterday.