NIA arrests Bhagwanpuria’s aide
Accused produced in special court in Mohali; rented house in Amritsar searched
AMRITSAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested one of the suspects in the Hizbul Mujahideen terror funding module case, Manpreet Singh, an aide of gangster Jagdeep Singh, alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, in Amritsar.
The accused was presented in the special NIA court at Mohali on Friday, officials said.
A raid was carried out at his rented accommodation in the city’s Loharka Road locality on
Thursday during which Rs 20 lakh drug money, 130 rounds of pistol, a Hyundai Verna car, a scooter, property documents, polythene bags used for packing heroin and mobile phones, etc were seized.
The agency sleuths also searched for nearly four hours on Friday. A forensic team that was called also collected samples from the sewage tank as some evidences were believed to have been flushed before the team gained entry into the house. Manpreet, who hails from Gurdaspur district’s Teja Khurd village and is in his midthirties, was living in the house along with his wife and three children for the last three to four months.
Manpreet, who is already facing five criminal cases, including that of murder and attempt to murder, was present in the house along with his wife and children when the team conducted the raid on Thursday, police officials said. He had been absconding for the last few years. The alleged terror module was busted by the Amritsar police in April last year with the arrest of Hilal Ahmed Wagay of Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district and Rs 29 lakh was recovered from a truck he was driving. Wagay, the police claimed, had come to collect the money on the instructions of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Riyaz Ahmed Naikoo who was killed in an encounter in Pulwama two weeks later.
The police subsequently arrested Bikramjit Singh, alias Vicky and his brother Maninder Singh, alias Mani of Guru Amardas Avenue in Amritsar in connection with the case. Bikramjit delivered the money to Wagay, who was to further hand it over to the Hizbul Mujahideen group, it was claimed.
Bikramjit had allegedly confessed that the money was given to him by Ranjit Singh, alias
Cheeta who along with his father Harbhajan Singh and brother Gagandeep Singh was arrested from Haryana in May last year. Cheeta is the alleged kingpin in the seizure of 532-kg heroin smuggled in a rock salt consignment imported from Pakistan though the Attari border in June 2019.
The NIA took over the case and a fresh case was registered on May 8, 2020, in Delhi. The agency has already filed chargesheets against 11 accused in the Mohali court.
Manpreet, an alleged hawala operator, collected heroin, drug proceeds and weapons and transported them at the instance of Ranjit Singh and one Iqbal Singh Shera, a nephew of drug smuggler Balwinder Singh Havelian.