CBI fails to crack Punjab highprofile murders

The bureau is still groping in dark to track down culprits who are suspected to have a common link

CHANDIGARH: Seven months after Punjab Police handed over the probe of high-profile cases of killing to the CBI, which has failed to make any headway in any of these cases. The cases involving murder of RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja, Namdhari matriarch Chand Kaur, two Dera Sacha Sauda followers in Khanna and Shiv Sena leader Durga Prasad Gupta were handed over to the CBI in September last year after police failed to crack the cases and cited “foreign hand” behind killings.

CHANDIGARH: Seven months after the Punjab Police handed over the probe of high-profile cases of killing to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the central agency has also failed to make any headway in any of these cases.

The bureau is still groping in dark to track down the culprits who are suspected to have a common link.

The cases involving murder of senior RSS leader Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (retd), Namdhari sect head’s mother Chand Kaur, two Dera Sacha Sauda followers in Khanna and Shiv Sena leader Durga Prasad Gupta were handed over to the CBI in September last year after the Punjab Police failed to crack the cases and cited “foreign hand” behind these killings.

Two other cases related to the Chand Kaur murder — killing of Namdhari follower Avtar Singh Tari at Koomkalan village of Ludhiana and the tiffin bomb blast of Jalandhar — were also handed over to CBI in September last year.

“The CBI got a few vital clues and managed to interlink the cases with many theories but the agency has failed to reach any conclusion so far as some vital links were still missing,” a top official of the Punjab Police associated with the case told Hindustan Times.

It was in this backdrop that a joint director of the CBI held a meeting with various agencies involved in the case at Jalandhar in the first week of this month, wherein Punjab DGP Suresh Arora was also present along with other officials concerned.

A new strategy was formed in the meeting after the CBI joint director and the DGP shared the investigations till now.

It was decided to re-work on all the cases from many other angles, said an ADGP rank official.

After this meeting, the Punjab Police again issued advertisements in vernacular papers on April 7 with pictures of the shooters and reiterated that whosoever would give any clue about the culprits would be given a reward of ₹ 50,000 lakh and a job of sub-inspector.

The police also gave a mobile number where people could give information, but sources in the intelligence wing of the Punjab Police said the cops have not received any clues so far.

“These cases are no less than a challenge for us,”DGP Suresh Arora informed Hindustan Times.

“The Punjab Police and CBI teams are working in tandem and through advertisements we have sought the information from the public,” DGP Suresh Arora added.

In September last year, Union home minister Rajnath Singh, while attending the bhog ceremony of the Gagneja in Jalandhar, had claimed that the CBI had received some vital inputs in the case and the culprits would be behind the bars “very soon”.