The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet against five accused, including a Pakistan based smuggler, and dismissed cop Gagandeep Singh in connection with Ludhiana Court Complex blast case, almost a year after it took over the case.
The NIA filed a charge sheet before a Special court in Punjab’s Mohali against five accused — Ludhiana based Gagandeep Singh aka Gagi (dead), Surmukh Singh aka Sammu, Dilbag Singh aka Baggo, Rajanpreet Singh, all residents of Amritsar and Pakistan based Zulfikar aka Phalwan on January 7.
The case pertains to a bomb blast at Court Complex Ludhiana on December 23, 2021, in which one person was killed and six persons were injured.
The case was re-registered by the NIA on January 13 last year.
A NIA spokesperson here said that the anti-terror probe agency during its investigation found that Lakhbir Singh Rode, a Pakistan-based ISYF/KLF terrorist handler, had planned to execute IED blasts at various locations in Punjab.
“In order to execute these plans, Rode, in association with Pakistan based smugglers, recruited India based operatives to smuggle IEDs and to carry out blasts to cause maximum casualties and to strike terror among the general public,” the official said.
“In furtherance of the conspiracy to carry out IED blasts in Punjab Rode, with the help of Zulfikar, a Pakistan based Cross-border Arms-Explosives-Narcotics smuggler, Harpreet Singh aka Happy based in Malaysia, Surmukh Singh Sammu, Dilbagh Singh and Rajanpreet Singh, formed a terror gang to carry out blasts and smuggle weapons into India,” the official claimed.
The official said that Rode used the smuggling channels of Pakistan based smuggler Zulfikar and his associates – Surmukh Singh and Harpreet Singh to deliver the IED to Gagandeep Singh who planted it to cause the blast in Ludhiana Court Complex and lost his life in the process.
The accused persons chargesheeted under several sections of IPC, Sections of Explosive Substance Act 1908, sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Sections of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984.
During the initial probe by Punjab Police, Gagandeep Singh, a day before the blast had called his former colleague Kamaljeet Kaur, who was posted as a typist in the Khanna Superintendent of Police office.
She was posted as a reader between 2015 to 2017 when Gagandeep Singh was a Munshi at the Khanna City police station.
Kaur was also arrested during the initial probe.
Gagandeep Singh was dismissed from duty in 2019 after being held in a drug peddling case and later sent to jail for two years. At the time of his dismissal, he was posted as a head constable at a police station in Khanna. He was released from prison in September 2021.
The NIA had questioned several people, including family members of Gagandeep Singh and his inmates of jail in connection with the case.