The Punjab police arrested Amritpal Singh in Moga’s Rode village early Sunday, ending an over a month-long manhunt against the radical preacher who styled himself after slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The preacher was taken into custody at 6.45 am as he came out of the gurdwara, dressed in the traditional attire that included a sheathed sword, in Rode, Bhindranwale’s native village and the place where he himself took over last year as the chief of Waris Punjab De.

The 29-year-old was detained under the stringent National Security Act and flown to Assam on a special flight to be lodged at the Dibrugarh Central Jail, where nine other associates picked up over the past several weeks are kept. Shortly after his arrest, a video surfaced online in which Singh said, “I have decided to surrender and this arrest is not an end, it is the beginning,” he said. In the “court of the Almighty”, he said he is not guilty.