National Investigation Agency to investigate target killing of Nangal Vishav Hindu Parishad leader
Ropar, May 15
The National Investigation Agency has taken over the investigation in to target killing of Vishav Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Vikas Prabhakar aka Vikas Bagga at Nangal last month.
According to sources, Bagga’s killing was planned by Pakistan-based masterminds through their terror module in Portugal, Germany and Dubai.
Bagga, the president of Nangal unit of VHP, was shot dead last month on April 13 when he was at his confectionary shop. This led to protests by VHP, RSS and BJP. Their senior leaders had staged a dharna demanding immediate arrest of the accused.
Three days later, the district police arrested two residents of Saloh village in Nawan Shahr district allegedly involved in the crime. The accused was identified as Mandeep Kumar alias Mangi (34) and Surinder Kumar alias Rikka. They were promised Rs 1 lakh by their handlers for killing Bagga.
The accused were provided with location of Bagga and his pictures. They were already paid Rs 73,000 out of the total amount of Rs 1 lakh for the murder.
Following this, Ropar police also arrested Gurpreet Ram alias Gora of Punnu Majara village in Nawanshahr district on April 24. Gora was in touch with the same handlers involved in the target killing of Bagga.
A pistol along with seven live cartridges were recovered from him. According to sources, Gora got the weapons from his handlers and was yet to be given task to kill some other person.
On April 26 a high-level VHP delegation comprising VHP international president Alok Kumar, secretary general Bajrang Bagra, joint general secretary Surendra Jain and Punjab region working president Harpreet Singh Gill met Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to demand a NIA probe into the murder of Bagga.
When contacted, Ropar SSP Gulneet Singh Khurana confirmed that Ministry of Home Affairs has issued orders to NIA to take over the investigation. The district police will hand over all the required record to NIA after legal formalities in this regard are completed, he added.
