NIA team in Faridkot over Gwalior ‘killing’

Five days after the arrest of two key operatives of Canada-based gangster-turned-terrorist Arsh Dalla by the Faridkot police in a murder case, a team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reached Faridkot.

Sources revealed that the police had involved the NIA due to the cross-border implications of the case and the use of high-tech weaponry in the incidents. It is alleged that after killing a former office-bearer of the Waris Punjab De outfit, Gurpreet Singh, of Hari Nau village of Faridkot on October 9, the arrested suspects — Navjot Singh, alias Neetu, and Anmolpreet Singh, alias Vishal — had gunned down Jaswant Singh Gill at Dabra town of Madhya Pradesh on November 7.

The police had seized two firearms made in Australia and China as well as mobile phones with foreign IMEI numbers from Neetu and Vishal after their arrest from a house at Kharar last week.

While a team of the Gwalior police is already camping in Faridkot, NIA sleuths and Faridkot police are now investigating the modus operandi of the suspects. They are also going through their phone records and financial transactions that link them to Arsh Dalla.

It is alleged that killing of Gill in Madhya Pradesh was a ‘supari killing’, planned by his Canada-based relative and executed with the help of Arsh Dalla. As both Neetu and Vishal belong to Punjab, they were tasked with carrying out the murder in Madhya Pradesh, using sophisticated weapons.

The sources revealed that the NIA was being involved in the investigation as the agency had immediate jurisdiction over the case because of its interstate and international ramifications.