The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday booked radical pro-Khalistan fugitive Amritpal Singh’s bodyguard and a former Army soldier Varinder Singh under the Arms Act in connection with a gun licence issued to him in the Kishtwar district of Jammu.

The district administration cancelled Varinder Singh’s licence and said it would probe how the former Army jawan, who was sacked in 2015 from a Sikh Battalion, procured the licence in 2014 and then kept getting it renewed in different districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

The licence was validated till 2025 from Ramban, Reasi, Baramulla and Kathua.

The district administration had recently received intimation from the Punjab Police to take action against Varinder Singh on the basis of which his arms licence was cancelled.

The police said Varinder Singh, also known as Fauji, was part of a private security set up for radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who is on the run.

A video recently showed Varinder Singh opening fire in the air.

After the clip appeared, the Punjab Police arrested him last week, slapped the National Security Act on him and lodged him in a jail in Assam.

Kishtwar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Khalil Poswal said that there was also a need to investigate how Varinder Singh got the licence.

“Accordingly, we have lodged an FIR under number 52/2023 under section 3/25/30 Arms Act and provisions of IPC registered in police station Kishtwar,” he said.

He further said that police has conveyed the details of the case to Punjab Police and sought documents from them. “We will seek the presence of that person. Varinder Singh will be brought here to conduct investigation and to find out how he reached here and how he got license from here.”

Giving further details, he said that the gun license was issued to him in 2014 from Kishtwar Deputy Magistrate (DM) office.

He said the CID wing of the Punjab Police recently wrote to the DM Kishtwar that there was misuse of his gun license. “The matter was activated and Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar cancelled the gun license,” the SSP said.

Poswal said that the police will have to ascertain as to under which circumstances the gun license was issued to him in the first place as his army unit was never posted here in Kishtwar.

“He was an Army jawan and was terminated in 2015. After issuance, his gun licence was getting renewed. The licence has been validated till 2025 from Ramban, Reasi, Baramulla and Kathua. There is a need to investigate the case,” the SSP said.

As for verification by the police before granting a gun license to him, he said that there was a letter from the then commandant to the DM. “On that certificate, the gun licence was issued. There was certification or verification by Police in Kishtwar in this case,” the SSP said.

The gun licence of another aide of Amritpal has been cancelled by the district administration of Ramban.

A couple having links with Amritpal was recently arrested from a border village in the Jammu district and handed over to the Punjab Police for further interrogation.

Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha said that the security forces were maintaining vigil in J&K. We will not let the developments in Punjab have any reflection in J&K, he added.