KTF terrorist Goldy acquitted in Patiala blast case

PATIALA: The district court has acquitted Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) terrorist Ramandeep Singh, alias Goldy, in the 2010 Patiala bomb blast case on Monday.

On April 20, 2010, a blast rocked the Arya Samaj area — the busy market place in interior Patiala city — near popular Satyanarayan Mandir, injuring nine persons, including two policemen.

Goldy was facing trial under Section 15 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 4 and 5 of Explosives Substances Act.

Goldy has to remain behind bars as he was also an accused in the 2009 murder case of Rulda Singh — then head of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, a wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Punjab Police arrested Goldy, a main accused in the case, from Thailand in November 2014 in a two-month operation launched in coordination with the central agencies in Thailand and Malaysia. He was later deported to India.

Earlier also, four other accused — Harminder Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Manjinder Singh and Gurjant Singh — were acquitted by the court in the case in 2014 after the prosecution failed to prove charges against them.

Goldy’s lawyer Barjinder Singh Sodhi said his client’s name was added on the statements of earlier acquitted accused during investigation, but the police theory fell flat in the court. “Goldy’s name was not mentioned in the first information report. The forensic reported submitted by the police failed to build any concrete evidence against my client,” Sodhi said.

The police claimed that following the Patiala bomb blast, Goldy went to Nepal and shifted his base to Thailand in 2011 using the assumed name of Sah Brahmdev and a forged Nepalese passport. He worked in a tours and travel agency and had recently set up an export-import firm named Euro 2014 Private Limited in Bangkok.