Amritsar, April 5
The Rajasthan Police and the Punjab Police in a joint operations today claimed to have arrested Sukhchain Singh alias Mann, an accomplice of Paramjit Singh Panjwar, a self-styled chief of the Khalistan Commando Force, who figures in the list of India’s 20 most wanted terrorists.

The government of Pakistan has been denying the presence of Panjwarh in Pakistan. During interrogation, Sukhchain Singh revealed that the code name of Panjwarh is ‘Malik’. In another revelation, the arrested terrorist revealed that the Pakistan-based radicals also tried to woo members of Sikh jathas to visit Pakistan. Sukhchain Singh was responsible for a number of explosions, including the one in the district court complex, old tehsil and telephone exchange etc. For every blast he would get Rs 50,000.

Mr Narinder Pal Singh SSP claimed that Sukhchain Singh was trained in Pakistan for handling explosives. Earlier, the police recovered 7.5 kg of RDX and other explosive material from a Fiat car abandoned on the Tarn Taran Road last month.

The SSP added that Sukhchain had revealed that he along with his brothers-in-law Gurdial Singh and Malkiat Singh both residents of Dhunda village, Prithpal Singh alias Gagan and Jamak Lal Jain who hailed from Udaipur in Rajasthan planned to plant this consignment of RDX to frame Harjit Singh a resident of Udaipur to settle personal scores with him. Channi revealed that they purchased the fiat car in the name of Harjit Singh and also got the car registered in his name.

Mr Narinder Pal Singh said that Sukhchain met his old friend, former terrorist Pargat Singh of the KCF who had been sentenced to 10 years during his parole recently to arrange RDX for planting the same into the Fiat car. The SSP said that he later informed the police about the consignment so that Harjit Singh could be arrested.

The SSP said that Pargat Singh was facing charges of bringing explosives and was sentenced in 1995 for 10 years along with a fine of Rs 1 lakh. He said that Sukhchain visited Pakistan in 1998 as part of the Sikh jatha and managed to get the contact number of one ‘Malik’ of Lahore from Pargat Singh. He said that ‘Malik’ was none other than Paramjit Singh Panjwar. Later Sukhchain was trained in the handle of weapons and was directed to become a courier to deliver consignments of explosives for which he was promised to be compensated.

Sukhchain continued to operate at the behest of Panjwar and used to get instructions from his contact in Belgium. During the past couple of years, Sukhchain revealed that he had delivered at least 85 kgs of RDX and seven pistols to various places according to the instructions.

The SSP said Sukhchain also revealed that he was involved in the planting of bombs in the various parts of the city for which he was convicted. During his sentence he became friendly with Pargat Singh, Sukha Singh Narli, Happy and others. He was also involved in fake currency racket. The SSP said that Sukhchain was in touch with Lahore-based smuggler Rafiq.

The police has solved the case of snatching of a bag containing jewellery by arresting four young men and recovered one licensed and desi pistol. The SSP said that the gang had planned to rob jewellers to meet gambling losses.

Mr Narinder Pal Singh said that the kingpin,@ Jasbir Singh alias Captain was a gambler who had lost nearly Rs 50-60 lakh and had even sold his house and a plot to pay off his debts. He along with Iqbal Singh alias Bali, Munish Kumar alias Bunty, Pawan both brothers and Kulwinder Singh who had absconded hatched a conspiracy to loot jewellers.

The SSP said that all of them decided to identify the jewellers of their area and on March 31 they identified the jewellers Gurdip Singh and Kirpal both brothers who were going on a scooter near Chowk Farid and banged their Maruti car into them. They fired from the pistol injuring both brothers and sped off in their car with the bag containing jewellery worth 2.5 lakh. Mr Narinder Pal Singh said that although very little recovery had been made so far, but he is hopeful that the entire jewellery would be recovered.