Chandigarh, April 5 The Punjab Police has arrested two alleged perpetrators of a recent blast outside the BJP headquarters in Chandigarh, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to seven, a senior police officer said on Sunday.
The arrested individuals are allegedly part of a module backed by the ISI, and they were receiving instructions from their handlers based in Germany and Portugal, the police said.
The police arrested Gurtej Singh and Amanpreet Singh, from Rewari in Haryana, on the night of April 4 in a joint operation with the Haryana Police, said Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav.
Both of them are residents of the Morinda area in Rupnagar, Punjab, and were working as bike operators at Rapido, Yadav said.
In this case, the police had previously arrested five accused, Mandeep, Rubal Chauhan, Charanjit Singh, Jasvir Singh, and Balwinder.
On April 1, around 5 pm, an explosion occurred outside the BJP's state headquarters in Chandigarh's Sector 37. The explosion caused damage to nearby parked vehicles. No injuries were reported in the incident.
The police initially suspected it to be a crude bomb, which later turned out to be a hand grenade, Yadav said.
Revealing Amanpreet's criminal record, the DGP said, "He was involved in a theft for which an FIR was registered in Mohali, and another FIR was registered against him for snatching in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh."
According to the police, Gurtej Singh came into contact with Baljot Singh, alias Jot, based in Portugal, who is the main handler of this module, six months ago through social media.
"On March 28, Gurtej was tasked with collecting a consignment of grenades and other weapons from the Balachaur area in Nawanshahr, Punjab," the DGP said.
The consignment containing two grenades, a pistol, and 10 cartridges was collected by Gurtej, Mandeep, and Rubal Chauhan from Jasvir Singh alias Jassi, he said.
Jot had given directions to Gurtej for target identification and reconnaissance, the DGP added, noting that Gurtej also involved Amanpreet, and both were bike operators working at Rapido and were promised Rs 2 lakh each for the task.
Amanpreet threw the grenade, while Gurtej recorded it on video, the DGP said, adding that their foreign handlers shared online training videos on how to throw a grenade and also provided mobile instructions.
"We are tracing the origin of this consignment," Yadav said.
Previously, five individuals, allegedly part of a module backed by Pakistan's ISI, had been arrested in the same case.
On Saturday, the DGP said the Counter-Intelligence wing of the Punjab Police, in a joint operation with the Chandigarh Police, had solved the Chandigarh grenade attack case.
The police recovered one hand grenade and one .30 bore Zigana pistol along with ammunition from their possession.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the module was backed by the Pakistani spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, and operated by foreign-based handlers located in Portugal and Germany.
On Saturday, Assistant Inspector General, State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), SAS Nagar, Deepak Pareek, said that a consignment of hand grenades, arms, and live cartridges changed hands several times before being handed over to the final perpetrators.
The police have booked the accused under sections of the Arms Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the SSOC SAS Nagar Police Station.
Within hours of the blast, a 10-second video surfaced on the internet showing a man pulling the pin from a grenade and throwing it, with another one recording the act.
The video did not reveal their faces. They fled the scene moments before the blast. The CCTV camera also recorded the incident.
Sukhjinder Singh Babbar of the banned Babbar Khalsa International, in a social media post the same day, claimed responsibility for the explosion.