Chandigarh, April 5 Two men, alleged to be the main perpetrators of the blast outside the Punjab BJP headquarters here, have been arrested, Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Sunday.
They were arrested in Rewari, Haryana, on Saturday night, he said.
"They are Gurtej Singh and Amanpreet Singh. Both are residents of village Ratangarh under Morinda Police Station in Rupar, Punjab," the police chief said at a press conference here.
On April 1, around 5 pm, an explosion occurred outside the BJP's state headquarters in Sector 37, Chandigarh. The explosion shattered the windows of cars and damaged a parked scooter. There were no casualties.
The police initially suspected it to be a crude bomb, which later emerged to be a hand grenade.
At Sunday's press conference, the DGP revealed that Amanpreet has a criminal record.
"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," he said.
According to the police, Gurtej Singh came into contact with Baljot Singh, alias Jot, based in Portugal, six months ago through social media.
On March 28, Gurtej was instructed to collect a consignment of grenades and other weapons from the Balachaur area in Punjab, he said.
With these two latest arrests, a total of seven people have been apprehended in connection with the April 1 blast.
Earlier, five individuals, allegedly backed by Pakistan's ISI, were arrested in the same matter.
On Saturday, the DGP said that the Counter-Intelligence wing of the Punjab Police, in a joint operation with the Chandigarh Police, had solved the case of the Chandigarh grenade attack.
The police recovered one hand grenade and one .30 bore Zigana pistol along with ammunition from their possession.
The five individuals who were arrested earlier were identified as Balwinder Lal, alias Shami, of village Majari in SBS Nagar; Jasvir Singh, alias Jassi, of village Bharapur in SBS Nagar; Charanjit Singh, alias Channi, of village Sujawalpur in SBS Nagar; Rubal Chauhan of village Thana in Shimla; and Mandeep, alias Abhijot Sharma, of Dhuri in Sangrur.
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 accused have been booked under sections of the Arms Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the SSOC SAS Nagar Police Station.
On April 1, within hours of the blast, a video emerged on social media showing a man pulling the pin from a blue-coloured grenade and throwing it, while another person recorded the act. The duo fled moments before the blast.
The 10-second video did not show the faces of the two men. CCTV camera recordings also captured suspects running across the road after hurling the object.
Sukhjinder Singh Babbar of the banned Babbar Khalsa International, in a social media post the same day, claimed responsibility for the explosion.