NIA chargesheets 3 in Ludhiana Hindu body leader’s murder case
NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency ( NIA) on Wednesday filed a chargesheet in a Delhi court against three persons in Hindu leader Amit Sharma’s murder in Ludhiana in 2017, terming it as an act of “terrorism”. The NIA alleged that the killing was a conspiracy by the Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF).
The agency filed the chargesheet against alleged arms suppliers Ashish Kumar, Javed and Arshad Ali, all residents of Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh.
The NIA said the chargesheet was filed under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under various sections of stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), including 16 (punishment for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy for terrorist act) and 20 ( punishment for being member of terrorist organisation). The final report also mentioned various offences punishable under the Arms Act.
According to the chargesheet, in January 2017, two unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants killed Sharma, president of Sri Hindu Takht, as a part of an organised conspiracy hatched by terrorist outfit KLF.
The murder was one among eight such cases of killings or attempted killings that took place in Punjab in 2016- 2017 aimed at to create communal disturbance, it said. Earlier, the NIA had filed a chargesheet against 15 persons in 2018.
“Investigation has established that accused persons Ashish Kumar, Javed and Arshad Ali had facilitated the other accused persons in killing of Sharma by supplying illegal firearms used in the crime. “They had supplied illegal arms, including .32 bore pistols which, along with other weapons/firearms, were used in target killing cases in Punjab,” it said, adding that further investigation in the case is on.