NIA files Charge-Sheet in Brig. Jagdish Gagneja Assassination Case of Punjab

Delhi: The National Investigative Agency (NIA) on Friday, 15th November filed a charge-sheet against 11 accused persons in a case pertaining to the 2016 killing of Brigadier Jagdish Kumar Gagneja (Retd.), the then Vice Chief of RSS for the State of Punjab. On the evening of 6th August 2016, the victim was shot dead in the Red Cross Market area of Jalandhar by two motorcycle-borne assailants who had muffled their faces.

During the investigation, it was found that the killing of Brig. Gagneja was part of a trans-national conspiracy hatched by the senior leadership of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). According to NIA, eight acts of targeted killings were executed as part of this conspiracy between 2016 and 2017 in Punjab and all the persons targeted belonged to specific communities and organizations. The objective of the conspiracy was to destabilize the law and order situation in Punjab and to revive the terrorism in the State.

It was further found by NIA that as part of the conspiracy, large amounts of funds were supplied from Italy, Australia and the UK to the perpetrators of the killings namely, Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh. These funds were used by them to purchase weapons for executing the killings as well as other logistics.

The conspiracy included recruitment and training of Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh in Italy and Dubai, UAE, respectively. Accused Hardeep Singh is a permanent resident of Italy while accused Ramandeep Singh belongs to Ludhiana. Both of them were trained by one Gursharanbir Singh, a UK national. Another UK national, Jagtar Singh Johal, who has been arrested in the case was involved in the funding of the conspiracy.

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