9 jailed for dropping arms by drones

A special NIA court in Mohali has sentenced nine accused to imprisonment in a 2019 case of drone dropping of explosives and arms linked with designated individual terrorists Gurmeet Singh, alias Bagga, and Ranjeet Singh, alias Neeta.

While six convicts have been sentenced to life, three others have been awarded rigorous imprisonment of 10 years.

The court found the accused guilty under various Sections of the IPC, UAPA, Arms Act and Explosives Substances Act in the case, linked with the proscribed terror organisation Khalistan Zindabad Force.

The accused, identified as Akashdeep Singh, Balwant Singh, Balbir Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Maan Singh, Shubhdeep Singh, Sajanpreet Singh, Gurdev Singh and Romandeep Singh, have been convicted and sentenced in the case, which was taken over by the NIA from the Amritsar police in October 2019.

While Akashdeep, Balwant, Harbhajan, Balbir, Maan and Gurudev have been sentenced to life imprisonment, Shubhdeep, Sajanpreet and Romandeep have been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for their respective roles in the case.

According to NIA, the accused were involved in collecting, transporting and smuggling huge caches of arms, ammunitions, explosives, communication devices and FICN sent into India via drones by Germany-based terrorist Bagga and Pakistan-based terrorist Neeta.

The explosives and arms were drone-dropped at specified locations in Tarn Taran district at several intervals during the months of August and September in 2019.

The entire conspiracy was aimed at unleashing a terrorist attack in Punjab with the aim of striking terror in the minds of people and disrupting the nation’s peace, security and unity.