In a major breakthrough, the Punjab Police has arrested two more alleged perpetrators in connection with the recent blast outside the BJP headquarters in Chandigarh, taking the total number of arrests in the case to seven, a senior police officer said on Sunday.
Earlier, police arrested five other accused in the case – Mandeep, Rubal Chauhan, Charanjit Singh, Jasvir Singh and Balwinder.
According to the police, the accused are believed to be part of an ISI-backed module and were receiving instructions from handlers based in Germany and Portugal, PTI reported.
Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said Gurtej Singh and Amanpreet Singh were arrested from Rewari in Haryana on the night of April 4 during a joint operation with the Haryana Police. Both the accused are residents of Morinda area of Rupnagar district in Punjab and were employed as bicycle operators with Rapido, Yadav said.
According to the police, Gurtej Singh got in touch with Portuguese Baljot Singh alias Jot – the main administrator of the module – about six months ago through social media. The consignment, which contained two grenades, a pistol and 10 rounds of ammunition, was picked up by Gurtej, Mandeep and Rubal Chauhan from Jasvir Singh, also known as Jassi, he said.
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The DGP said Jot directed Gurtej to identify the targets and conduct a survey. Gurtej then brought Amanpreet into the scheme and the two – both working as Rapido cycle operators, were allegedly promised ₹2 million for completing the task.
Amanpreet allegedly threw the grenade while Gurtej videotaped the act, the DGP added. He further said that their foreign handlers shared online training videos on the use of grenades and gave instructions via mobile phones.
Yadav said the police are now tracing the origin and supply chain of the consignment.
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Earlier, five persons believed to be part of the ISI-backed module were arrested in connection with the case.
Chandigarh BJP office blast
The blast took place around 5:00 pm on April 1 outside the BJP state headquarters in Sector 37 in Chandigarh and damaged vehicles parked nearby. No injuries were reported.
Police initially suspected that the blast was caused by a crude bomb, but it was later confirmed to be a hand grenade, he added.
The Director General of Police said on Saturday that Punjab Police’s Counter Intelligence in collaboration with Chandigarh Police have cracked the Chandigarh grenade attack case. During the intervention, the police seized one hand grenade, a .30 caliber Zigana pistol and ammunition from the accused.
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Preliminary investigations revealed that the module was supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and operated by handlers based abroad, particularly in Portugal and Germany.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), SAS Nagar, Deepak Pareek, said on Saturday that the consignment of grenades, weapons and live ammunition passed through several hands before reaching the ultimate perpetrators.
The accused were booked under the relevant provisions of the Arms Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the SSOC police station in SAS Nagar.
Within hours of the blast, a 10-second video surfaced online showing one man pulling out a grenade pin and hurling it while another recorded the act. The footage did not reveal their faces and both fled the scene shortly before the explosion. CCTV cameras also captured the incident. On the same day, Sukhjinder Singh Babbar of the banned Babbar Khalsa International claimed responsibility for the blast in a social media post.
