The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday filed a charge sheet against three ‘”listed individual terrorists” and six others associated with banned terror outfits, Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).
Among those arraigned are alleged gangsters-turned-terrorists and drug smugglers and suppliers.
It is alleged that Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda and Lakhbir Singh Sandhu alias Landa of BKI and Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dala of KTF have been operating overseas, from where they have created their own networks of operatives. They have close contacts with drug smugglers and pro-Khalistan operatives in Pakistan and other countries.
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“Through this complex network of operatives based abroad, they have been recruiting, motivating and handling their associates in India to carry out terrorist activities, extortion and cross-border smuggling of weapons and drugs into India. They also have links with major gangs operating in northern India, including local gangsters, organised criminal syndicates and networks,” said the agency.
The NIA has also unearthed a complex mechanism of fund raising for BKI and KTF. The funds were being routed to India-based associates through both informal channels as well as formal channels via layering and fund provisioning. Various means of money transfer were being used in a way that the identity of the real sender or receiver of funds was masked, as alleged.
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The NIA is also investigating the links of 16 other absconding and arrested accused associated with BKI and KTF.
Key BKI member
A former “gangster”, Rinda is now a key BKI member and pro-Khalistan operative. In 2018-19, he had fled to Pakistan. The accused is currently living there under the patronage of the ISI. He is involved in various offences like smuggling of arms, ammunition, explosives and drugs into the Indian territory from Pakistan, recruitment of BKI operatives, murders, raising funds for the outfit through extortion, etc. in Punjab and Maharashtra, said the agency.
He has allegedly been involved in many terrorist activities, including the Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG) attack on the Punjab police intelligence headquarters (Mohali) in May 2022, and was declared an “individual terrorist” earlier this year.
Accused Arsh Dala, who is from Moga in Punjab, was a gangster who is now operating from Canada, where he came in contact with the then KTF chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The two formed gangs for raising funds through extortion and for carrying out targeted killing of businessmen and leaders of particular communities in Punjab. He has also been designated as an “individual terrorist”.
Another accused, Landa, belongs to Tarn Taran, Punjab. He was initially involved in criminal and gangster-related activities. In 2017, he left for Canada and continued his activities from there. In due course, he came in contact with BKI Rinda and started working with him. Landa is the main accused in several terrorist incidents, including the RPG attack on the Punjab police intelligence headquarters and another such attack on the Sarhali police station in Tarn Taran in December 2022. He was also the mastermind of the conspiracy to kill Punjab police sub-inspector Dilbagh Singh in August last year.
Other foreign-based BKI men chargesheeted by the NIA are Harjot Singh, who is currently in the United States; Kashmir Singh Galwaddi, also an absconding accused of the Nabha Jailbreak case, who is now suspected in Nepal; and Landa’s brother Tarsem Singh, who has shifted base to Dubai.
Another KTF-linked accused, Gurjant Singh, is right now in Australia. Deepak Ranga and Lucky Khokha have also been named. Ranga was roped in by Rinda and Landa for the May-2022 RPG attack, said the agency.
