Targeted killings: NIA, CBI gather more info on accused

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, November 21

Teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) visited Moga and Ludhiana today as part of their investigation into the murder of RSS leaders and the matriarch of the Namdhari sect.

The NIA is investigating the murder of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain, who was gunned down outside his house in Ludhiana on October 17.

The CBI, meanwhile, is probing the murder of Namdhari sect matriarch Chand Kaur, who was killed at Bhaini Sahib in Ludhiana on April 3, 2016, and RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd), who was shot in Jalandhar on August 6, 2016.

The Moga police claimed to have solved the murder cases of right-wing leaders, but Central agencies are conducting a parallel investigation into the three cases.

Moga Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raj Jit Singh Hundal told The Tribune teams of the NIA and the CBI gathered information about radial Sikh activists and gangsters, who were recently arrested by the local police.

“We have not provided any official document to the teams as the investigation is still in progress, but shared information about an international terror module involved in the murder of religious leaders,” he added.

The Punjab Police see no link between the international terror module and the Namdhari murder case, believing it to be an outcome of a succession battle within the sect.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, however, feels that the modus operandi in this and other cases is similar — “two motorcycle-borne assailants fired shots from a close range”.

The CBI team is likely to visit the house of late Brig Gagneja (retd) and the crime spot and also the dera of the Namdhari sect, sources said.