Ludhiana court bombing: NIA to step into investigation

The investigation into the December 23 Ludhiana court blast, in which the suspected bomber Gagandeep Singh was murdered and six others were injured, was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday.

After the ministry of home affairs issued the notification, a senior official stated they took over the investigation from Punjab police on Thursday.

Punjab police's first findings led to the involvement of Khalistani groups.

For the past three weeks, the central anti-terror investigation agency has been aiding Punjab police informally in their investigation. Several convicts at the Ludhiana Central Jail are said to have been interviewed after Gagandeep Singh, a former police officer, was arrested there last year on narcotics charges.

Gagandeep Singh is believed to have made contact with numerous Khalistani members in the prison, including Ranjeet Singh Cheeta and Sukhwinder Boxer, who are suspected of having ties to Pakistan's spy agency, ISI.

Because it has the authority to conduct investigations abroad and has a solid database on Khalistani networks, the NIA will also look into the role of organizations acting out of other countries, particularly Pakistan.

Gagandeep Singh was discharged from the military in 2019 after serving two years in prison for a drug offence. In September of this year, he was freed from prison.

He was identified after the explosion based on technical evidence, including his mobile phone location, and his body was later recognized by his relatives.

It was stated in the initial reports stated that the blast was carried out by the banned Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), after one of the group's senior members, Jaswinder Singh Multani, was apprehended by German authorities in Erfurt on December 28.

However, officials failed to rule out the possibility that Multani was involved in the Ludhiana bombing.

Multani was previously under investigation for terror-related acts in Punjab in 2021, as well as reportedly shipping guns, explosives, narcotics, pistols, and hand grenades through Pakistani operators. Multani, a close ally of SFJ president Gurpatwant Singh Pannu in the United States, is notorious for radicalizing Sikh youth to participate in extremist activities.

Multani was charged in a separate first information report (FIR) submitted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on December 30 that, “in touch with an ISI operative Jibran and Pakistan-based smuggling network members Rana Taseem, Imran and others, and is actively pursuing a conspiracy to carry out attacks in Mumbai and other parts of India, with support of his Punjab-based associates under the instruction of ISI.”