CHANDIGARH, Apr 5: Two men, allegedly the main perpetrators of the blast outside Punjab BJP headquarters here, have been arrested, Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Sunday.
They were arrested in Haryana’s Rewari on Saturday night, he said.
“They are Gurtej Singh and Amanpreet Singh. Both are residents of village Ratangarh under Morinda Police Station in Punjab’s Rupar,” the police chief said at a press conference here.
On April 1, around 5 pm, a blast occurred outside the BJP’s state headquarters in Chandigarh’s Sector 37. The explosion shattered the windowpanes of cars and dealt damage to a scooter parked. There were no casualties.
The police earlier surmised it to be a crude bomb, which later emerged to be a hand grenade.
At Sunday’s press conference, the DGP revealed Amanpreet has a criminal record.
“He was involved in a theft for which an FIR was registered in Mohali, and another FIR was registered against him for snatching in Himachal’s Bilaspur,” he said.
According to the police, Gurtej Singh had come in contact with Portugal-based Baljot Singh, alias Jot, six months ago through social media.
On March 28, Gurtej was told to collect a consignment of grenades and other weapons from the Balachaur area in Punjab, he said.
With the two latest arrests, seven people have so far been nabbed in connection with the April 1 blast.
Earlier, five individuals, part of a module allegedly backed by Pakistan’s ISI, were arrested in the same matter.
On Saturday, the DGP said the Counter-Intelligence wing of Punjab Police, in a joint operation with Chandigarh Police, had solved the Chandigarh grenade attack case.
The police recovered one hand grenade and one .30 bore Zigana pistol along with ammunition from their possession.
The five arrested earlier were identified as Balwinder Lal, alias Shami, of village Majari in SBS Nagar, Jasvir Singh, alias Jassi, of village Bharapur in SBS Nagar, Charanjit Singh, alias Channi, of village Sujawalpur in SBS Nagar, Rubal Chauhan of village Thana in Shimla, and Mandeep, alias Abhijot Sharma, of Dhuri in Sangrur.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the module was backed by the Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence and operated by foreign-based handlers located in Portugal and Germany.
On Saturday, Assistant Inspector General, State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), SAS Nagar, Deepak Pareek, said a consignment of hand grenades, arms and live cartridges changed hands several times before being handed over to the final perpetrators.
The accused have been booked under sections of the Arms Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the SSOC SAS Nagar Police Station. On April 1, within hours of the blast, a video emerged on social media showing a man pulling the pin from a blue-coloured grenade and throwing it, while another person recorded the act. The duo fled moments before the blast. The 10-second video did not show the faces of the two men. CCTV camera recordings also captured suspects running across the road after hurling the object.
Sukhjinder Singh Babbar of the banned Babbar Khalsa International, in a social media post the same day, claimed responsibility for the explosion. (Agencies)
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