Two men linked to a Khalistani terror module were caught, admitted their involvement in the crimes in the state, police allege.
New Delhi/Chandigarh: Seven more cases of murder of RSS and other Right-wing leaders reported from Punjab in the past two years will now be transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for a detailed probe, sources told ThePrint.
“We have moved an application and all seven cases of murders of RSS and Hindu Right-wing leaders will be transferred to the NIA,” said Prabodh Kumar, director, Bureau of Investigation, Punjab Police.
Punjab DGP Suresh Arora also confirmed the development.
Earlier this week, the NIA took over the investigation of the murder of Ravinder Gosain, mukhya shikshak (head teacher) of Mohan shakha of the RSS. He was shot by two men on a motorbike outside his residence in Ludhiana’s Gagandeep Colony on 17 October.
While the case was being probed by Ludhiana police, two men — Ramandeep Singh and Hardeep Singh — were taken into NIA’s custody. During their examination, the men allegedly admitted their involvement in eight incidents of murder and attempted murder in Punjab since January 2016.
They allegedly told investigators that targets in these incidents were members of the RSS and Hindu organisations.
“It was revealed that a conspiracy to destabilise Punjab has been hatched by Sikh extremist elements and others located in various parts of the world, including the UK, France, Italy, UAE and Pakistan. In July 2017, the group also murdered a Christian pastor, Sultan Masih, in Ludhiana,” an investigator claimed.
“The investigation conducted so far has revealed channelling of funds from foreign countries for execution of the murders. The conspiracy included an element of ideological brainwashing and incitement of the accused persons on religious grounds by their mentors settled abroad,” he added.
Sources said that Punjab has now written to ministry of home affairs to transfer the other seven murder cases too to NIA, since they are related.
“It appears that the same group is behind these attacks and murders as their modus operandi is the same. The assailants come on bikes and they are masked. Also, they use the same kind of weapon and even their targets are same,” the investigator said.