CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh Police have arrested two of the five key persons involved in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and 15 others and identified the remaining three including the suicide bomber who dressed as a constable to carry out the attack on August 31 here.
Although the police declined to reveal the identity of any of the five, sources said one of the arrested persons is Punjab police constable Lakh winder Singh who was gunmen of an IAS officer and the other, Gurmeet Singh, a diploma holder engineer who prepared the bomb belt. He was employed with the local office of the BPL. Sanyo. He, however, said two of the five ‘were Punjab government employees, one of whom has been arrested. He ‘was evasive when asked whether both employees were from Punjab police but stated that none was either from the Chief Minister’s security or from gazetied ranks.
Four of them were in mid-twenties while the fifth was in 30s, he said. They all belonged to same community. None of them was a permanent resident of Chandigarh but the engineer was residing in a rented house at the adjoining township of Mohali while the one arrested along with him had hired a room about a year ago in Chandigarh. It was in this room al the human bomb stayed for some time. Lakhwinder Singh and the human bomb did reconnaissance of the secretariat building: All five were known to each other for quiet some time, The family of the youth, has established his identity. He was a matriculate and at present unemployed. Mr. Dadwal said an added that he had tied. the belt carrying the explosives around him. Only two legs cut from below the knee and a part of skull was what remained of him after the blast. However, half burnt socks and one Ital make shoe are from which his identity ‘was apparently established, sources said and added that his reconstructed face also facilitated the identification.
While it was being talked about whether the human bomb was “Billa” of Lobia village in Jalandhar who had recently returned from abroad or another person of the same name from Garshankar village, the official sources refused to confirm it, Involvement of another policeman was also being investigated. It was learnt that some persons, said to be the family members of human bomb, were still in the police custody, more persons were picked up for questioning. Early in the investigation four other people had been picked up by the police for interrogation regarding their activities in the past one year to find some clues about the assassination of Beant Singh.
According to police sources, those taken into custody were Amrik Singh and his son Kanwal Charanijit Singh alias Happy, Jagit Singh “Jaga” and Jasbir Singh. Amrik Singh, father of slain Babbar Khalsa militant Raminderjit Singh Taini, was picked up from his house in Mohalla Siraj Ganj.
Police had also raided the residence of his brother Ranbir Singh Rana, a Ieader of AllIndia Sikh Students Federation and a contractor with the city municipal corporation. Jagjit Singh “Jaggi,” who was picked up from his model house residence, is out on bail in a case of sedition.
Others named in the same FIR were allegedly involved in an aborted conspiracy to kill Beant Singh. While Sukh ler Singh Sukhi and (Charanjit Singh Channi, then students of Lyallpur Khalsa College, and activists of Sikh Students Federation (Bitto group), were arrested by the police, Nirmaljit Singh Nimma and Paramjit Singh Dhadi, also named in the same FIR, had absconded. They had left the country, the sources added.
Article extracted from this publication >>September 8, 1995
