Govt to hand over all targeted killings to NIA

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 30

Due to possible national and international ramifications of the conspiracy behind the targeted killings in the state, the Punjab Government has decided to hand over the investigation of seven cases to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Disclosing this here on Thursday, an official spokesperson said it had been decided to transfer the cases to the NIA under Section 6 of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, 2008, since the modus operandi in all cases was the same.

It had also been found that the inter-state as well as international perpetrators and terrorist angle involved in the criminal conspiracy, to disturb peace and communal harmony in the border state of Punjab by selectively targeting leaders of certain groups, were the same.

The decision to transfer the cases was taken after an NIA team, led by its Director YC Modi, held discussions with officials of the Punjab Police on Monday. The two teams mutually felt that the Central agency was better equipped to undertake further investigations into the cases. With handlers, conspirators and financers in all these targeted killings operating from foreign soil, the investigations needed to be more broad-based, they both agreed.

Following the decision, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has directed the Punjab Police to hand over all material in the cases to the NIA for further investigation into the cases, in which the police had recently arrested UK citizen Jagtar Singh Johal and some others to solve the cases of targeted killing of RSS/Shiv Sena/DSS leaders in the state between January 2016 and October 2017. The Chief Minister has directed that complete support be extended to the NIA to uncover the full extent of the conspiracy to disturb Punjab’s peace and harmony.

The spokesperson said the move was aimed at ensuring that the foreign-based networks conspiring against Punjab were dismantled and action taken against foreign handlers (both organisations and individuals) through cooperation with the Ministry of External Affairs, Interpol, Europol, foreign governments, etc. It was vital to crack down on such elements that are carrying out murder and mayhem, and revive terrorism in Punjab.

The seven cases being handed over to the NIA include killing of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain, in which the investigation had already been handed over to the agency before the terror module was busted by the Punjab Police. Gosain was killed in Ludhiana on October 17.