No headway in Maur blast case

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 14

There seems to be no headway in the Maur blast investigations ever since the police booked two persons having links with the Dera Sacha Sauda in the case in February.

Gurtej Singh Kala, incharge of a workshop at Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa, and Amrik Singh, a former security guard of the dera chief, were booked. A lookout circular was issued for both of them a couple of days after they were named in the case.

According to four witnesses, the work of assembling the Maruti car, used in the blast, was undertaken in the presence of Gurtej, while Amrik used to regularly visit the B-workshop (a special workshop used only for modifying the dera chief’s costly cars).

Subsequently, call records also revealed that Amrik had a word with a shop owner in which he asked him for a 9-watt battery. Gurtej was the one at whose behest the car, used in the blast, was assembled and its colour changed at the workshop. Besides, he also purchased the battery used to trigger the blast.

It had come to light in the initial stages of the probe that the battery was purchased from Sirsa while some of the mobile calls also hinted towards Sirsa link. The police found the first clue from the shop from where this battery was purchased. Now, the arrest of Gurtej and Amrik will reveal as to why they did so and who was the mastermind of the blast. Seven persons had died in the blast outside the campaign venue of Congress candidate from Maur Harminder Jassi on January 31 last year.