Ludhiana blast: Cops in touch with suspect Gagandeep being quizzed

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 30

Several policemen who were in touch with Ludhiana court complex bomb blast suspect Gagandeep Singh were being quizzed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Punjab Police.

Some posted in Khanna

• The cops include SHO-rank officers, thana munshi and others. Some of them are presently posted with the Khanna police
• No role has been established in the conspiracy so far, but have been asked to appear for questioning whenever required
• The NIA and police are also interrogating two inmates of the Central Jail, where the suspect had got in touch with them

Sources privy to the development said no direct or indirect connivance of these cops with Gagandeep had so far been established in the blast conspiracy, but they had been asked to appear for questioning whenever required in the future.

They include SHO-rank officers, thana munshi and others. Some of the policemen are presently posted with the Khanna police.

A senior police official said after the blast, the police had prepared a list of persons on the basis of the call details of the suspect. The names of over a dozen policemen had cropped up on the list.

The list included cops who were in touch with the suspect prior to the registration of a drugs case against him in 2019, those who remained in touch prior and after the registration of the case and those who came in his contact after the FIR was lodged.

A woman constable of the Khanna police with whom the suspect purportedly had an affair had been in touch with him prior to 2019 and used to make frequent calls. Even the CCTV footage showing the suspect with the woman was retrieved from a Khanna hotel where they visited two days prior to the blast.

Currently, two inmates of the Central Jail — Ranjit Singh of Modhe village, Amritsar, and Sukhwinder Singh Soni, alias Boxer, of Rohno Khurd, Khanna — are being interrogated by the NIA and the crime wings of Punjab Police.

Soni is facing over 15 cases of terror activities, extortion, sodomy, drug, theft, etc. while Ranjit has seven cases of drugs smuggling and those under the Arms Act registered against him. Gagandeep had spent considerable time with the two inside the jail and even after getting bail, had been in touch with them.

It is suspected they had hatched the conspiracy. The probe agencies have not yet officially confirmed the role of the inmates in the blast.