Punjab Police in a joint operation with a central agency and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Maharashtra, has arrested Charat Singh – main accused in the Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attack case – from Mumbai on Thursday morning. The RPG attack took place at Punjab Police’s intelligence headquarters in Mohali on May 9.
Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said that the arrested accused is a key operative and associate of Canada-based Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorist Lakhbir Singh alias Landa.
DGP Yadav said that 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. He had also procured an RPG, AK-47, and other weapons from across the border with the active support of ISI through Pakistan-based terrorist Harwinder Singh alias Rinda, said the DGP.
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill said that with the arrest of accused Charat Singh, Punjab Police have so far arrested eight accused persons in this case, while, another accused, who is juvenile and 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.
Gill said the police teams are on a manhunt to arrest the last accused in this case identified as Deepak Kumar of Jhajjar, Haryana.
He said that Charat is a habitual offender and is facing several cases of heinous crimes including murder, attempt to murder, and under the Arms Act in Punjab.
The IGP said 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 associates had killed a shopkeeper Shashi Kapoor in Khemkaran, Tarn Taran in March 2015.
“During his parole period, Charat reassembled his associates including Nishan Kulla and others from Tarn Taran area to carry out the RPG attack, which was aimed at destabilizing communal harmony and peace in the state,” said the IGP.