The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a chargesheet on Friday against eight people allegedly owing allegiance to the banned Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF), in a case of attempt to murder Shiv Sena leader Amit Arora, an official said.
Mr. Arora was attacked on February 3, 2016 when he was inside his car parked in a locality in Ludhiana.
The chargesheet was filed in the special NIA court in Mohali. The NIA said the crime was part of a transnational conspiracy hatched by senior KLF leadership.
The chargesheet names Hardeep Singh, alias Shera, Ramandeep Singh, alias Canadian, Dharminder Singh, alias Guguni, Anil Kumar, alias Kala, Jagtar Singh Johal, alias Jaggi, Harmeet Singh, alias Happy (suspected to be in Pakistan), Gurjinder Singh, alias Shastri (suspected to be in Italy) and Gursharanbir Singh, alias Pehalwan (suspected to be in U.K.).
They have been charged under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Arms Act.
The agency claimed eight incidents of targeted killings or attempts to kill were executed as part of this plan between January 2016 and October 2017 in Punjab and all the victims belonged to certain specific communities and organisations.
“The objective of the conspiracy was to destabilise the law and order situation in Punjab and to revive the fledgling terrorism in the State,” the NIA spokesperson said.
The NIA claimed that during investigation it was found that the conspiracy had its footprints in several countries, including Pakistan, the UK, Australia, France, Italy and the UAE.
As part of the conspiracy, substantial amounts of funds were supplied through Italy, Australia and the UK to the perpetrators which included Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh and these funds were used by them to purchase weapons for executing the killings and other logistics.
The conspiracy included recruitment and training of Hardeep and Ramandeep in Italy, Dubai and UAE. The NIA said that Hardeep is a permanent resident of Italy and Ramandeep Singh belongs to Ludhiana. They were trained by Gursharanbir Singh, a UK national. The NIA said another UK national, Jagtar Singh Johal, who has been arrested in the case, was involved in the funding of the conspiracy.
The spokesperson said day-to-day coordination of the conspiracy was done by Pakistan-based Harmeet Singh.
