New Delhi — The father of the man accused of assassinating Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had been detained in connection with a recent string of bomb blasts that killed 85 people, news reports said Monday.
The Press Trust of India reported that authorities on Sunday detained Tirlok Singh, father of Satwant Singh, who the government has accused of the slaying of Mrs. Gandhi last Oct. 31.
Quoting intelligence officials, the news agency said Tirlok Singh was being interrogated about the booby trapped transistor radio bombings that rocked northern India on May 10 and 11.
The government blamed the explosions in New Delhi and three states on Sikh terrorist.
Tirlok Singh, in his late seventies, was arrested when he visited a woman whose name figured in lists recovered from bomb blast suspects, the news agency reported.
About a dozen Sikhs have been arrested in New Delhi for alleged involvement in the blasts, which killed 45 people in the capital alone. More than 1,000 people were detained in northern India for questioning.
Police in Chandigarh city, joint capital of Punjab and Haryana states, meanwhile, said they recovered 105 pounds of dynamite and several army and police uniforms from the house of a suspect, the United News of India news agency reported.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 24, 1985
