Punjab Police arrests three terrorists behind Nawanshahr CIA office grenade attack

|HT|

Punjab Police have solved the hand-grenade attack at the crime investigating agency (CIA) office at Nawanshahr last November by busting a Pakistan-based terror module run by Harvinder Singh, alias Rinda, with the arrest of its three operatives, director general of police VK Bhawra said in Chandigarh on Monday. Police personnel at the CIA office at Nawanshahr had a narrow escape when some unidentified miscreants hurled the grenade on the night of November 7 last year.

Those arrested were identified as Manish Kumar, alias Mani alias Baba, a resident of Bains village in Nawanshahr; Ramandeep Singh, alias Jakhu of Atta village at Goraya in Jalandhar district; and Pardeep Singh, alias Bhatti of Sahlon village, in Nawanshahr, now Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar. The police also recovered a hand-grenade from the accused.

Bhawra said that the counter intelligence wing and the SBS Nagar police arrested the three accused after sustained investigation.

During interrogation, Ramandeep confessed that Manish and he had thrown the hand-grenade at the Nawanshahr CIA office on the directions of Harvinder Singh, alias Rinda, the DGP said, adding that Ramandeep had picked up two hand-grenades from the location on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur road as guided by Rinda. SBS Nagar senior superintendent of police Sandeep Kumar said while a 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. Harvinder struck a deal with Ramandeep for ₹4 lakh to carry out this attack, he added.

Harvinder, a notorious gangster active in Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Haryana, is a history-sheeter and wanted by Punjab Police in crimes such as murder, contract killing, robbery, extortion and snatching.

The police have named Harvinder as an accused in the case and added Sections 13/16/17/18/18-B/20 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the FIR on 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 Nawanshahr city police station.

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