New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), in a major breakthrough Thursday, arrested a UK national for his alleged involvement in last year’s attack on the Indian High Commission in London and carrying out “unlawful activities”.
This is the first arrest by an Indian agency in connection with the incidents reported on 19 and 22 March last year, which the NIA said were part of a larger conspiracy “to unleash vicious attacks on the Indian missions and its officials”. Scotland Yard had reportedly arrested a man in connection with the attack in October last year, but his identity was not revealed.
The accused, Inderpal Singh Gaba, a resident of Hounslow, UK, was allegedly involved in the incidents that took place during protests on 22 March, an NIA spokesperson said.
According to the NIA, the March 2023 attacks in London were found to be in retaliation to the arrest of Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh by the Punjab Police last year.
The High Commission of India in London was attacked in March by a group of around 50 persons, who committed criminal trespass, pulled down the Indian flag and damaged public property and even injured officials.
The attack, the NIA claimed, was organised by Gurcharan Singh, Dal Khalsa, Avtar Singh Khanda of the Khalistan Liberation Force, Jasvir Singh and many of their associates, both Indian and foreign nationals.
According to NIA sources, Amritpal Singh, lodged in Dibrugarh prison, was also questioned in this regard as he was found to be in touch with Khanda.
An NIA team had visited the UK in May 2023 to probe the attack. Subsequently, a crowdsourcing of information was also carried out to identify and collect information about UK-based entities and individuals involved in the incident, based on which the agency identified many of the attackers, it is learnt.
The NIA procured CCTV footage from the high commission to identify the perpetrators.
In June last year, the NIA put out videos and photographs of suspects in the public domain, along with an appeal to help identify them. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had also issued Look Out Circulars (LOCs) against 15 people, who were identified from five videos of the violence.
The NIA has been carrying out raids and searches at several locations in Punjab and other states to nab the accused. The agency also issued video footage from outside the Indian High Commission in London where a group of men can be seen waving Khalistani flags.
“NIA teams have been working hard to arrest the perpetrators, their associates and their supporters, based in India and abroad. NIA has been carrying out extensive investigations into the incident with a view to ensuring there is no repeat of such breach of security, disrespect to the Indian National Flag or any threat to Indian interests abroad,” an NIA officer said.
The officer said that the raids carried out at 31 locations in Punjab in August last year proved to be crucial in making the arrest.
Those raids, the officer further said, had led to the seizure of digital data containing information related to the accused persons involved in the attack on the High Commission and other incriminating documents and evidence.
The districts where these searches took place include Moga, Barnala, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, SBS Nagar, Amritsar, Mukhtsar, Sangrur, Patiala, Mohali in Punjab and Sirsa in Haryana.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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