Chandigarh, October 13
Days after the Delhi Police arrested those who had fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at the Punjab Police Headquarters, Mohali, in May this year, the Punjab Police salvaged some pride by arresting one of the key accused in the incident in Mumbai today.
Operative of BKI ultra
Officiating DGP Gaurav Yadav said the accused, Charat Singh, was a key operative and accomplice of Canada-based Babbar Khalsa International terrorist Lakhbir Singh, alias Landa
Officiating DGP Gaurav Yadav, in a video statement, said Charat Singh, the main accused in the RPG attack case, was nabbed in Mumbai this morning.
The RPG attack was carried out at Intelligence Headquarters in Mohali on May 9 around 7.45 pm. Six days ago, the Delhi Police had arrested two accused — Arshdeep Singh and a teenager — for firing the RPG. Earlier, they had arrested another accused, Deepak Surakhpur. This was the third time the Delhi Police claimed to have solved a key crime incident in Punjab. Earlier, they had busted a gang that killed kabaddi player Sandeep Nambian in Jalandhar in March and later they were the first to arrest shooters in the singer Sidhu Moosewala murder case.
Not going into the arrests made by the Delhi Police, DGP Yadav said the arrest was made by the Counter Intelligence wing of the Punjab Police, in a joint operation with a central agency and the ATS, Maharashtra. He said Charat Singh was a key operative and associate of Canada-based Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorist Lakhbir Singh, alias Landa.
Yadav said Charat had built a strong crime network across the state with the help of Landa and was providing logistic support and shelter to foot soldiers, who carried out the RPG attack. Charat had also procured an RPG, AK-47, and other weapons from across the border with the active support of the ISI through Pakistan-based terrorist Harwinder Singh, alias Rinda.
IGP (Headquarters) Sukhchain Singh Gill, in a separate press conference, said with the arrest of Charat Singh, the Punjab Police had so far arrested eight accused in this case, while another accused, a juvenile who had carried out the attack, was arrested by the Delhi Police recently, taking the total number of arrests to nine.
Earlier, Nishan Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Baljinder Singh Rambo, Kanwarjeet Singh Bath, Anantdeep Singh Sonu, Baljeet Kaur Sukhi and Lovepreet Singh Vicky were arrested by the Punjab Police.
He said police teams were on a manhunt to arrest the last accused in the case, identified as Deepak Kumar of Jhajjar, Haryana, who had carried out the RPG attack.
Gill said Charat was a habitual offender and was facing several cases of heinous crime, including murder, attempt to murder, and under the Arms Act in Punjab. The accused was serving a life sentence in a murder case and at the time of the RPG attack, he was out on parole, he said, adding that Charat, along with his accomplices, had allegedly killed a shopkeeper, Shashi Kapoor, in Khemkaran, Tarn Taran, in March 2015.
“During his parole period, Charat reassembled his accomplices, including Nishan Kulla and others, from the Tarn Taran area to carry out the RPG attack, which was aimed at destabilising communal harmony and peace in the state,” said the IGP.
