Man And The Manhunt

Before he became India's most wanted fugitive, people knew Amritpal Singh as a family man, courteous neighbour and committed activist. THE WEEK speaks to his family and villagers to decode the making of a radical

- Namrata Biji Ahuja

Glittering bangles cover her thin wrists. Stars sewn into her blue salwar kameez sparkle. She sits, precariously, on the edge of a bed, like a ship anchored in a tumultuous sea. She is Kirandeep Kaur, wife of Amritpal Singh, radical Sikh preacher and India's most wanted man.

Kirandeep, 29, married Amritpal in February, months after he took over as the leader of the radical group Waris Punjab De. The wedding took place in a gurdwara at Jallupur Khera, a village of 250 families in Punjab's Amritsar district. She has been in Amritpal's ancestral bungalow for the past two months, watching herself and the family plunge into crisis as Amritpal became a man on the run. "This is going to be my first long spell without him since I got married," she said.

In his absence, it is Kirandeep who is taking care of Amritpal's distraught parents, sister-in-law and children. Outside the iron gate-which has the letters AKF etched on it, after the Anandpur Khalsa Army-CCTV cameras keep watch on every movement. It is a world far away from the one she grew up in.

Born and raised in the UK, Kirandeep was a physiotherapist and interpreter when she met Amritpal online. She ran a radio programme on Punjab, titled Punjab Diya Leheran (The waves of Punjab). When she decided to marry Amritpal, she said, she knew that he was a man with a mission.

"I understood and accepted it," said Kirandeep. "He told me, 'If I have to choose between panth and our relationship, panth would be first.' I knew I was his second priority."

But Amritpal was also a caring husband. "Would I have married him if I knew he could not give me time and did not care about me? He really loves me and cannot bear to see me upset. He has always been gentle and caring," she said.