Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 25: The Punjab police is claimed to have solved the Ludhiana court blast within 24 hours identifying the deceased in the incident, a dismissed policeman, to be the person who had set explosives.
Soon after identifying the deceased as Gagandeep Singh, a former police head constable, the police raided his house in Khanna in Ludhiana to unearth more evidence in support of its claim.
The Punjab Director General of Police Siddharth Chattopadhyaya told a press conference on Saturday that the police investigation revealed that the deceased himself was carrying the explosive and it might have exploded accidentally before he could escape. Gagandeep Singh was the only casualty in the incident in which five others were injured but none of them seriously.
The dismissed police head constable was a resident of Khanna in Ludhiana. He was dismissed from police service in 2019 after he was found to be involved in an illicit drugs trafficking case. “Within 24 hours we could trace the main accused. He turned out to be a dismissed head constable of Punjab police. He was arrested by Special Task Force for carrying narcotic drugs. The case has been registered against him in 2019,” Chattopadhyaya elaborated.
The DGP said the case against him was still pending in the same and a hearing was due on December 24. It was believed that Singh wanted to destroy some evidences against him for which he had planned the explosion but it went off before time killing him.
After spending about two years in jail, Singh was recently out on bail and his trial was underway. “Most probably in the jail he came in touch with others [criminals] and his transition from narcotics to mafia to drugs is a very dangerous combination, which has come to the fore. It’s going to be a major challenge for us. We have traced people associated with him. The investigation revealed that there are links within the jail, across Punjab and from abroad with Khalistani elements, terror outfits, mafias and narcotic smugglers,” said the DGP.
Chattopadhyaya expressed the apprehension that the seemingly localized incident could have more wider ramifications and connected with drug mafia and narcotics as well as terrorism. He said there were indications that the Ludhiana court blast was linked to Khalistani and narco-terror elements operating from Pakistan.
He said the main accused, the dismissed head constable “transitioned from just narcotics to mafia and terror” probably when he was in Punjab jails. Elaborating, the DGP said the police had leads about persons he was linked with and preliminary investigations revealed that such “links were in jails in Punjab, Khalistani elements abroad, terror outfits, mafia outfits as well as narcotic smugglers.” The DGP said “this is very dangerous cocktail of narco-organised crime and terrorism.”
“As per leads with us, we strongly suspect that the person [behind Ludhiana blast] is operating from Pakistan only,” the DGP added. He said the blast was aimed at creating a sense of insecurity in the run up to elections and instilling a sense of fear in the courts. Chattopadhyaya appealed to the people to inform the police about any suspicious activity. The DGP said “police visibility” would be increased and security beefed up at crowded places in the state by pruning security cover of private individuals and deploying them in the field. “The main challenge which lies ahead of us is the Punjab elections. We will make every effort to get the polls conducted in a peaceful manner without any sense of fear,” Chattopadhyaya said.
Talking about the type of explosive used in the blast, Chattopadhyaya said, “The material has been sent for forensic examination. We would be able to tell (about the type of explosive used) when the report comes. We don’t think it is RDX as I had some talk with the experts. But, right now I cannot say anything conclusively on that.”
Asked about the probable motive of the attack, the DGP said it could have been aimed at a person, or at a particular place as the next date of hearing in the drug case against Gagandeep was on December 24, a day after the blast. “He may have done this to get the hearing deferred, or to create a sense of fear amongst judges… Such things happened during the terrorism era. A judge was attacked in Moga, in Jagraon also and at many places where they (judges) were… martyred while sitting on chair and delivering justice,” Chattopadhyaya said.
He added that Gagandeep was “very sound in computers and other technical material. It appears that he went to join some wire in the washroom. It does not look like human bomb concept. His posture and initial police investigations suggest that he was using the washroom to assemble explosives.” The DGP said while Gagandeep was alone in the washroom at the time of blast, police were analyzing CCTV footage to check for the presence of other suspects.
The DGP said Gagandeep was arrested by the STF for carrying narcotic drugs (385 gm heroin), and a case was registered against him on August 11, 2019 at the STF Police station Mohali under the NDPS Act and after spending two years in jail he came out on bail in September this year. He was posted as munshi at Khanna Sadar police station at the time of his arrest.
Gagandeep Singh was killed in the explosion in the washroom on the second floor of the Ludhiana court complex on Thursday. Several political parties had held the incident as an attempt by terror organisations to destabilise Punjab on the eve of the state Assembly elections due early next year. The union home ministry had also sought a detailed report from the Punjab government on the explosion.
