There is a mistrust between Amarinder and Sidhu. It must end soon.
TARN TARAN : A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to reach Tarn Taran on Friday to start probe into the case of recovery of two hand grenades from a man on August 30, a senior Punjab Police official said.
Saroop Singh of Johal Dhai Wala village in Khadoor Sahib sub-division was arrested with two China-made hand grenades on the outskirts of Kakka Kandiala village, 4km from the district headquarters.
Saroop had identified some locations in Amritsar and Ludhiana to execute terror attacks at the instance of his Germanybased handler, the police have claimed. A video of training module sent by his foreign handler explaining how to successfully explode a grenade was also recovered from the suspect’s mobile phone.
“We have identified the Germany-based handler who transferred nearly Rs 50,000 to Saroop through Western Union via two transactions for carrying out an attack at some location in Ludhiana,” said an official.
Saroop Singh, who is on a seven-day police remand, has been lodged in a joint interrogation centre where various agencies are questioning him. The accused, the official said, came in contact with his Germanbased handler through social media a few months ago. “He was easily radicalised as he was a soft target being unemployed. Our teams are working to ascertain all linkages of the foreign handler,” he added.
“We have got verbal information from the NIA and an order in this regard is likely to be received on Friday,” the police official added.
The central agency is likely to take over the case from Monday when remand of the accused will come to an end. Senior superintendent of police (SSP) OS Ghumman, however, said they have not received any order so far on the NIA taking over the case.
Saroop, who earlier worked a truck driver and is unmarried, lived with his mother and elder brother, a former armyman. His father died 13 years ago. The police said Saroop had sold his portion of the land to his brother a few years ago.