Terrorist Activities: NIA chargesheet against 9 reveals complex networks to raise funds for Khalistani terror activities | India News

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency on Saturday filed a chargesheet against three foreign-based, designated terrorists Harwinder Singh Sandhu aka Rinda of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Arshdeep Dalla aka Arsh Dala of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and Lakhbir Singh Sandhu aka Landa of BKI, and six others in cases relating to the nexus between gangsters, terrorists and drug smugglers active in north India.

Rinda, Arsh and Landa, as per the chargesheet, have created their own networks of operatives to carry out terror activities in India. They have close contacts with drug smugglers/Khalistani operatives in Pakistan and other countries.

Through this complex network of operatives based abroad, they have been recruiting, motivating and handling their associates in India to carry out terrorist activities, extortion and cross-border smuggling of weapons and drugs into India. They also have linkages with major gangs operating in North India, including local gangsters, organised criminal syndicates and networks.
Six others chargesheeted on Saturday include foreign-based BKI nodes Harjot Singh, r/o Punjab and currently in USA; Kashmir Singh Galwaddi, r/o Punjab and an absconding accused of Nabha Jailbreak case and suspected to be presently in Nepal; and Tarsem Singh, brother of Lakhbir Singh Sandhu @ Landa, and currently in Dubai. Another chargesheeted accused is Gurjant Singh, r/o Punjab and currently in Australia, who is among the foreign based nodes of KTF.
Deepak Ranga and Lucky Khokhar @ Denis, who were recruited by foreign based handlers for carrying out terror activities in India, have also been chargesheeted. Accused Deepak Ranga was handled by Rinda and Landa for carrying out the RPG attack on Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters, Mohali, Punjab in May 2022.

Investigations in the gangster-terrorist-drug-smuggler network have revealed a complex mechanism of fund raising for the BKI and KTF. The funds were being routed to India based associates through both, informal channels as well as formal channels with layering and fund provisioning. MTSS or other means were being used while fully masking the identity of the real sender or receiver of funds.
NIA is also investigating the links of 16 other absconding and arrested accused associated with the BKI and KTF.
A former gangster, Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda is now an important BKI member and Khalistani operative. In the year 2018-19, he fled to Pakistan and is currently living there under the patronage of ISI, and is involved in commission of terrorist activities against India. Rinda is involved in various offences like smuggling of arms, ammunition explosives and drugs into Indian territory from Pakistan, recruitment of BKI operatives, murders, raising funds for BKI through extortion, etc. in the states of Punjab and Maharashtra. He has been involved in many terrorist activities, including the RPG attack on Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in May 2022, and was declared as an ‘individual terrorist’ in 2023 by the Central government.
Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dala, r/o Moga, Punjab was an infamous gangster in India prior to relocating to Canada. In Canada, Dala came in contact with Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the KTF chief who was recently killed in British Columbia. The duo engaged in recruitment of youth and formation of terrorist gangs for carrying out extortion for raising funds for KTF and for carrying out targeted killing of businessmen and leaders of particular communities in Punjab. Dala was declared an ‘individual terrorist’ earlier this year.
Lakhbir Singh Sandhu alias Landa, r/o Tarn Taran, Punjab, India was initially involved in criminal and gangster related activities. In 2017, he left for Canada and continued his activities from there. In the meantime, he came in contact with BKI terrorist Rinda and started working for the latter and BKI. He has been main accused in a number of terrorist incidents, including RPG attack on Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in May 2022 and RPG attack on Sarhali Police station in Tarn Taran in December, 2022. He was also the mastermind of the conspiracy to kill Punjab Police SI Dilbagh Singh in August, 2022.