Continuing its swift action in the Chandigarh grenade attack case amidst the ongoing drive to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Counter Intelligence wing of Punjab Police in joint operation with Chandigarh Police and with the assistance of Haryana Police has successfully arrested the two main perpetrators, who had lobbed hand grenade outside the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in Sector 37, Chandigarh, from Rewari in Haryana, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Sunday.
Those arrested have been identified as Gurtej Singh and Amanpreet Singh, both residents of Rattangarh in Rupnagar. Accused Amanpreet Singh has a prior criminal record, with FIRs of theft and snatching registered against him in SAS Nagar and Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, respectively.
The development came a day after five accused — identified as Balwinder Lal alias Shami, Jasvir Singh alias Jassi, Charanjit Singh alias Channi, Rubal Chauhan and Mandeep alias Abhijot Sharma — involved in this case were arrested, and one hand grenade along with one .30 bore Zigana pistol were recovered from their possession.
DGP Gaurav Yadav, while addressing a press conference here, said that with these latest arrests, all seven accused involved in the case are now in police custody. The DGP was accompanied by ADGP Counter Intelligence Amit Prasad, ADGP Internal Security SK Verma, IGP Intelligence Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, AIG SSOC SAS Nagar Deepak Pareek.
The DGP said that the arrested accused had been motivated and directed by ISI-backed foreign-based handlers, Baljot Singh alias Jot in Portugal and Harjeet Singh Laadi in Germany, and were promised a monetary reward of Rs 2 lakh for carrying out the attack.
Acting on the directions of their foreign-based handlers, the accused coordinated the delivery and execution of the attack, he said, adding that they used multiple cut-outs and sub-modules to execute the attack.