VHP leader’s murder case solved, 2 held

The Punjab police on Tuesday claimed to have solved the murder case of Nangalbased Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader in less than 72 hours with the arrest of two operatives of a terror module backed by Pakistan-based terrorist organisation.

It may be recalled that VHP leader Vikas Prabhakar alias Vikas Bagga, who ran a shop in Nangal town of the Ropar district in Punjab, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants last Saturday.

The assailants, who had their face covered, came on a black scooty.

Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said that following a thorough investigation in this case, police had arrested both the assailants identified as Mandeep Kumar alias Mangi and Surinder Kumar alias Rikka.

Police teams have also recovered two .32 bore pistols— including one used in the crime— along with 16 live cartridges and 1 empty cartridge, besides impounding the Scooty used in the crime, he added.

He said that preliminary investigations have revealed that this terror module backed by a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation was being operated, guided, motivated and funded by the foreign-based handlers operating from Portugal.

He said that both the shooters were in contact with foreign-based handlers via encrypted Apps and the latter had shared the location and photo of the target with them, besides arranging funds and weapons to execute this killing.

The Ropar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gulneet Singh Khurana said immediately after the killing, a team was formed after announcing a reward of Rs 1 lakh for providing information regarding the identification of assailants and photographs of accused persons grabbed from a CCTV were circulated through electronic, print and social media. He said that further investigations were on to ascertain the terror organisation which operated this module.