Sector 10 grenade attack: NIA to compare walking pattern of accused with CCTV footage, gets 3-days remand
The Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Chandigarh has granted three days’ police remand for Rohan Masih and Vishal Masih, accused in the grenade attack case at a house in Sector 10, to NIA.
The NIA had sought the remand for their interrogation. In its application, the agency said that three mobile phones seized from the accused during their arrest had been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Chandigarh for data extraction.
The NIA said that the forensic report has been received on January 15, 2025, and analysed.
During further investigations, vital new facts came to light with regards to the role and involvement of the accused persons in the case. Moreover, the agency found incriminating chats, videos, photos, and foreign numbers saved in their WhatsApp contact list, including other incriminating material. The NIA contended that the accused needed to explain this material.
Apart from this, the walking pattern of the accused persons is required to be compared with the CCTV footages taken in possession from Integrated Command and Control Centre, Sector 17, Chandigarh.
On the other hand, the defence counsel argued that there is no reasonable explanation in seeking police custody. He said that as per Section 187 of BNSS, police remand of the accused cannot be obtained in the manner in which the prosecution is seeking as they have already obtained their police custody earlier.
After hearing the arguments, the court said that certain new facts have emerged during investigation and the accused are required to be interrogated on these aspects. Therefore, their custodial interrogation is needed in the matter. In view, both the accused are remanded to police custody till February 03, 2025.
On September 11, a grenade was hurled at a house in Sector 10-D, Chandigarh. Initially, Chandigarh Police carried out the investigation. Subsequently, the case was transferred to the NIA. The agency is probing the wider angle of the conspiracy and also how weapons and explosives were smuggled across borders.
Chandigarh Police claimed that the grenade attack was carried out at the behest of Harpreet Singh, alias Happy Pashia, a gangster-turned-terrorist currently based in the US and Harwinder Singh Rinda, a Pakistan-based terrorist.
