Punjab police bust terror module, three held

Punjab Police on Monday claimed to have solved a case of a hand grenade attack at Crime Investigating Agency (CIA) by busting a Pakistan-based terror module with the arrest of its three operatives. Punjab Director-General of Police Viresh Kumar Bhawra said: “A major Pak-based terror module run by Harvinder Singh alias Rinda has been busted with the arrest of three of its operatives.” The arrested have been identified as Manish Kumar alias Mani alias Baba, a resident of village Bains in Nawanshahr, Ramandeep Singh alias Jakhu of village Atta in Goraya of Jalandhar district, and Pradeep Singh alias Bhatti of village Sahlon in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. The police have also recovered one live hand grenade from the possession of the accused persons. DGP said that after extensive investigation, the Counter Intelligence Wing and the SBS Nagar police have managed to arrest three accused involved in the attack. “During interrogation, Ramandeep confessed that he along with Manish had thrown the hand grenade at the Nawanshahr CIA Office on the directions of Harvinder Singh alias Rinda,” said the DGP, adding that, “Ramandeep had picked up two hand grenades from the location at Ludhiana-Ferozepur Road as guided by Rinda.” SBS Nagar Senior Superintendent of Police Sandeep Kumar said: “While one hand-grenade was used for the attack in Nawanshahr, another live P-80 Hand Grenade, similar to the one used to carry out the attack, was recovered on the disclosure of Ramandeep.” Rinda struck a deal with Ramandeep for Rs 4 lakh to carry out this attack, he added. The main accused Rinda, a notorious gangster active in Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, and Haryana is a history-sheeter and wanted by the Punjab Police in heinous crimes including murder, contract killing, robbery, extortion, and snatching. The police have also nominated Rinda as accused in this case and added sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 18-B, 20 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the FIR dated November 8, 2021, which was initially registered under sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act and sections 307, 427 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Police Station City Nawanshahr. A minor blast occurred inside the CIA office in Nawanshahr on the intervening night of November 7 and 8, 2021. It occurred beneath a water cooler. The police had found that unknown persons had hurled a hand grenade at the office with the intention to kill the police officers. However, the officers present in the CIA office had escaped unhurt.