Chandigarh, April 18 (IANS) Punjab Police have solved the hand-grenade attack at Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) office in Nawanshahr by busting a major Pakistan-based terror module run by Harvinder Singh, alias Rinda, with the arrest of its three operatives, said Director General of Police V.K. Bhawra here on Monday.
Some persons on the night of November 7 and 8, 2021, had hurled a hand grenade with the intention to kill police officials. However, the officials present there had escaped unhurt.
Those arrested have been identified as Manish Kumar, a resident of village Bains in Nawanshahr, Ramandeep Singh of Jalandhar district and Pardeep Singh in SBS Nagar district. The police have also recovered one hand grenade from their possession.
Bhawra said after extensive and sustained investigation, the Counter Intelligence wing and the SBS Nagar police have arrested three accused.
During interrogation, Ramandeep confessed that he along with Manish had thrown the hand grenade on the directions of Harvinder Singh, said the DGP, while adding that Ramandeep had picked-up two hand grenades from the Ludhiana-Ferozepur Road as guided by Rinda.
Sandeep Kumar, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) SBS Nagar, said while one han grenade was used for the attack in Nawanshahr, another P-80 hand grenade, similar to the one used to carry out the attack, was recovered on the disclosure of Ramandeep. Harvinder struck a deal with Ramandeep for Rs 4 lakh to carry out this attack, he added.
Harvinder Singh, a notorious gangster active in Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Haryana, is a history-sheeter and wanted by Punjab Police in heinous crimes, including murder, contract killing, robbery, extortion and snatching.
Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and other leaders met the family of deceased farmer Lovepreet at the Chaukhada farm in Palia at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday. They later met the family of journalist Raman Kashyap, who was also killed in violence.
9 persons, including four farmers, were killed in the violence that had erupted during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri. A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli will hear the matter on Thursday. The matter has been listed as 'violence in Lakhimpur Kheri (UP) leading to loss of life'.
Canadian MP Tim S. Uppal said he was shocked to learn about the brazen attack on protesting farmers. Another Canadian MP Ruby Sahota said she was heartbroken to learn about the violence directed at protesting farmers.
The demand made by citizens primarily mirrored their right to clean air and the right to breathe, underlining the reality that Punjab is home to some of India's most polluted towns, including Mandi Gobindgarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Khanna, and Patiala.
The case was assigned to the division bench of Justices A.G. Masih and Ashok Kumar Verma. Earlier, the case was being heard by the bench of Justices Rajan Gupta and Ajay Tewari but the latter recused himself from hearing the case on September 1.
Furnishing details about the incident, Additional DCP-2 Nishant Gupta told IANS that they had received information about a firing incident in the northeast Delhi area on October 1.
