RPG attack on Punjab Police Intelligence HQ: NIA arrests main shooter Deepak Ranga

Chandigarh, January 25

The NIA has arrested Deepak Ranga, the main shooter in the RPG attack on Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in Mohali in May 2022. Deepak, was absconding since the RPG attack, was caught from Gorakhpur on Wednesday morning.

Deepak Ranga, a resident of Surakpur village in Jhajjar district of Haryana is a close associate of Canada-based gangster-turned-terrorist Lakhbir Singh Sandhu @ Landa and Pakistan-based gangster-turned-terrorist Harvinder Singh Sandhu @ Rinda. Apart from his involvement in the RPG attack, Deepak has been involved in a number of other violent terrorist and criminal offences, including violent killings. He has been actively receiving terror funds and logistical support from Rinda and Landa.

The NIA had registered the case suo moto on September 20, 2022 after it emerged that terrorist outfits and terror elements based abroad were operating in tandem with leaders and members of organised criminal gangs operating in northern states of the country to commit targeted killings and violent criminal acts. It had also emerged that the terror-gangster-drug smuggler network was also engaged in smuggling terrorist hardware, such as arms, ammunition, explosives, IEDs, etc., across border through a widespread inter-state network of gun runners, illegal arms and ammunition manufacturers and suppliers and explosive traffickers.

Since the registration of three criminal cases against the above terror-gangster-drug smuggler network, NIA has already arrested 19 leaders/members of various organised criminal gangs, two arms suppliers and one big financier connected with the network under UAPA.

Canada-based Arsh Dalla was designated as an ‘individual terrorist’ by the MHA on January 9, 2023. Further action to dismantle the terror-gangster-smuggler nexus and infrastructure would be intensified in the near future.