No clue on murder of 2 RSS leaders

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 27

Even as the CBI is probing the murder of RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd) after the Punjab Police failed to make any headway, the latter has so far failed to nail the culprits involved in the 2009 murder of Rulda Singh, state chief of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, an RSS affiliate.

Both cases are strikingly similar and the key aspects also point towards many similarities in the manner in which the leaders were killed.

“The modus operandi is very similar. Both were shot by unidentified men who escaped on motorcycles and both incidents took place late in the evening,” said a senior IPS officer.

“Further in both cases the target was a man affiliated with the RSS in one way or the other. In both cases initial probe hints at the handiwork of minds working from abroad,” he added.

Both leaders were seen as architects of the RSS expansion in the state, a move that perturbed some hardline radical thinkers, who always saw these activities with suspicion.

“The SAD-BJP government has failed to protect their own men and the murders of Gagneja and Rulda Singh are clear indication of the government-backed forces spreading terror in urban Punjab. Even the Rulda Singh murder case should go to the CBI as there are many common links between both cases,” said senior Congress leader and Abohar MLA Sunil Jakhar.

However, the Punjab Police refute the claims that they failed to solve the case claiming that they brought the accused to the court but “lack of evidence due to hostile witnesses helped the accused get away”. “It does not mean the case is unsolved,” the police said.

Earlier in February 2016, the court of Additional Sessions Judge NS Gill acquitted five persons accused of killing Rulda Singh in 2009 while hearing against two other accused in the case, Jagtar Singh Tara and another Khalistan Tigers Force terrorist Ramandeep Singh Goldy, is pending trial.

The acquitted were Darshan Singh Makaropur, Jagmohan Singh, Daljeet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Amarjeet Singh.

The police had registered a case against unidentified persons on July 29, 2009. Later in September 2009, the police claimed that two persons who had opened fire at Rulda Singh had come from the UK and had escaped after the murder. Five persons had facilitated their stay in India, provided them arms and informed them of Rulda Singh’s daily schedule. The case is still a mystery.