NIA court drops charges against Jimmy, Ladi

MOHALI: In the target killings case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court in Mohali on Tuesday discharged Taljit Singh Jimmy and Tarlok Singh Sandhu alias Ladi, on the basis of an application filed by the NIA.

The National Investigation Agency had in May sought discharge of Taljit Singh alias Jimmy, a Jammu native, saying it did not have sufficient evidence against him at this stage.

Jimmy has been discharged in six cases, while Ladi in three cases by the court, said their counsel Jaspal Manjhpur. He said that NIA had moved an application in this regard and the court acted upon it. Jimmy was arrested on October 31, 2017, from the Delhi airport on his arrival from the UK, where he gone to study. He was accused of arranging funds from abroad for target killing of religious leaders. They had been booked under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder) 379 (theft), 416 (cheating) of the IPC; under relevant sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and the Arms Act. The NIA had sought discharge of Jimmy, claiming that no evidence was found against him during the investigation. On May 4, the NIA had also sought discharge of all charges against Jimmy in the Ravinder Gosain murder case.

In the target killing case, the NIA had filed a 1,500-page chargesheet on May 15 against Hardeep Singh alias Shera alias Pahalwan, Ramandeep Singh alias Canadian, Dharminder Singh, Anil Kumar, Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi, Amaninder Singh, Manpreet Singh alias Mani, Ravipal, Pahad Singh, Parvez, Malook Tomar, Harmeet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Gursharanbir Singh and Gurjinder Singh Shastri.