Chandigarh, March 21
The Chandigarh Police today claimed to have arrested four members of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) along with 1 kg of RDX, one AK 47 rifle with 15 cartridges, a .38 bore revolver with five cartridges and a 12 bore gun from the road diving Sectors 12 and 14 late last night.
The police said one of the arrested persons is an employee of a Hindi newspaper working at Kurali. The police said the four arrested persons were working for Jagtar Singh Tara, prime suspect in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
Addressing media persons here in a joint press conference, the UT Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Mr Gaurav Yadav, and SSP (Operations), Mr Dinesh Bhatt, said the breakthrough was a result of a joint operation carried out by the Operation Cell and the Crime Branch of the Chandigarh Police that gathered and processed the information to arrest the accused.
Giving details, Mr Gaurav Yadav said Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi alias Bullet of Model Town, Kurali, was nabbed with an AK 47 rifle and 15 cartridges, Balbir Singh alias Nepali of Kumharhati gurdwara, in district Solan, was arrested with a .38 bore revolver and five cartridges. Dilbag Singh of Burja Wala’s search led to the recovery of 1 kg of RDX and Ranjit Singh of Santokhgarh in Ropar district was held while carrying a cut-barrel 12 bore gun and two cartridges.
They were nabbed from near a bus stop on the road diving Sectors 12 and 14 at around 9 p.m. The accused were on their way to conceal the arms and ammunition somewhere in the city.
On the other hand denying the police claims in the district courts here, Mr Narang Singh, father of one of the arrested persons, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi, said his son was arrested from their Kurali residence early this morning.
However, when asked by the media to clear their stance on the allegation, the police said the accused were arrested from Chandigarh. They added that the accused had revealed during preliminary interrogation that they were part of a Babbar Khalsa module controlled by Jagtar Singh Tara. They were in touch with BKI activists and were one of the several modules raised by the BKI.
Inspector Vijay Kumar, in charge of the Operation Cell, said Sukhi had agreed to go to Pakistan for arms training and was to be sent to Pakistan at a given opportunity. Sukhi got married recently and his marriage was attended by Jagtar Singh Tara and Dilbagh Singh.
About Dilbagh Singh the police officers said he was in close touch with Tara and had been meeting him regularly. He had also kept a consignment of arms and ammunition sent by Tara for safe keeping some time back. Speaking about the role of Ranjit Singh, the police disclosed that he is a relative of Tara and was constantly in touch with him to carry out his directions. The police said during interrogation the fourth member arrested in this connection, Balbir Singh, divulged that he was involved in terrorist activities in the past. He was working as a granthi in a gurdwara in Solan. He also admitted about his role in helping Jagtar Singh Tara and Devi Singh, the other two wanted in the Burail jailbreak case, for crossing the Indo-Nepal border.
The police has booked all the four accused under Sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Explosive Substance Act and Sections 25 of the Arms Act. They were produced before a local court today which remanded them to police custody till March 25.
Mr Gaurav Yadav while talking to media persons said that more arrests were likely in the near future on the basis of revelations made by the accused during
interrogations.
