Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh and Punjab police chief Suresh Arora today maintained that the state police solved cases related to alleged target killings of Hindu leaders, including RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja.
Notably, investigation of Jagdish Gagneja’s killing was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Punjab government had announced to hand over the case related to killing of Ravinder Gosain to NIA. But today the police claimed to have solved these cases itself.
Amarinder Singh and Suresh Arora claimed in a press conference that the conspiracy behind these killings was hatched by Pakistan’s intelligence service called ISI. Amarinder and Arora further claimed that with recent arrests in these cases the state police have busted 8th such module in the state since formation of Congress party’s government in Punjab.
CM Amarinder Singh claimed that case related to last month’s killing RSS leader Ravinder Gosain was solved with these arrests. Ravinder Gosain case was linked to most of the cases of alleged targeted killings that have taken place in Ludhiana, Khanna and Jalandhar since January 2016, the Chief Minister claimed during a press conference.
He claimed that the conspirators who have been arrested include a gangster, Dharmendra alias Guggni, lodged in Nabha jail.
In a claim which seemed to be aimed at strengthening Congress government’s arguments justifying proposed legislation of controversial PCOCA, Amarinder Singh maintained that there “radicals” and gangsters have developed a nexus.
A written press release issued by Punjab government states: “Three of the suspects have been identified as Jimmy Singh (a Jammu resident who recently returned to India from UK after spending many years there, and was picked up a week ago from Delhi’s IGI airport), Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi (a UK national who got married just last month and was apprehended in Jalandhar), Dharmender @ Guggni (a gangster from Meharban in Ludhiana who was supplying weapons to the killers)”.
It is notable that the Punjab police had arrested Taljit Singh of Jammu after he was withheld by the immigration authorities after his arrival at IGI airport on October 31. Information about Taljit Singh’s arrest was first released by Sikh Siyasat News. It is worth noting that Taljit Singh’s brother Tarlok Singh had said that Taljit Singh was residing in England for last 9 years and he had returned to India after 9 years.
SSN had also reported the arrest of UK citizen from Jalandhar on November 4 and was taken on remand by Baghapurana police on November 5. Taljit Singh was also on remand with Baghapurana police.
CM and state police chief said that the fourth arrested person was the main shooter in the various cases and he was caught this afternoon. Duo did not extend any details about him saying that such details could not be disclosed at this juncture as his interrogation was still continuing.
CM Amarinder Singh said that he had directed the DGP to work out a system of awards and rewards for the police team for this case and “for future too”.
According to the written press release, Punjab DGP said during the press conference that such incidents of killings could also take place in future as Punjab was a border state and international conspirators were allegedly working against it.
The DGP claimed that the assailants were leaving behind their footprints with every case. Similar weapons were used in Durga Das and Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (Jalandhar) cases, as were done in Amit Sharma case in Ludhiana. Investigations also showed that the same kind of weapons were used in the February 2017 Khanna killings of DSS follower Satpal Kumar and his son, July 2017 Ludhiana killing of Christian Pastor Sultan Masih and last month’s Ludhiana murder of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain.
He further added that same kind of weapons were also used in the Ludhiana RSS Shakha case of January 2016 and Amit Arora murder case of February 2016. DGP said that the weapons used in all the eight cases were standard 9mm, .32 and .30 bore pistols.
Police chief attributed the claimed success of police in these cases that intelligence and counter-intelligence wings as well as the district police of Batala and Moga. The team consisted of IG Intelligence Amit Prasad, DIG Counter-Intelligence Ranbir Khatra, SSP Moga Ranjit Singh, SSP Batala Opinderjit Ghuman, SP Rajinder Singh, SP Wazir Singh, DSPs Sulakhan Singh and Sarabjit Singh, Inspector CIA Moga Kikar Singh and ASI Haripal.