NIA files chargesheet against 11 in Jagdish Gagneja assassination case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday has filed a charge-sheet against 11 accused in a special court in connection with the killing of Brigadier (retired) Jagdish Kumar Gagneja, the then vice chief of RSS for Punjab, on August 6, 2016. Gagneja was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants who had muffled their faces while he was attending to nature's call in the Red Cross Market area of Jalandhar. 

During the investigation, it was found that the killing of Gagneja was a part of a trans-national conspiracy hatched by the senior leadership of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). Eight acts of targeted killings or attempted killings were executed as part of this conspiracy between January 2016 and October 2017 in Punjab. 

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NIA's statement

All the persons targeted belonged to specific communities and organisations and the objective of the conspiracy was to destabilise the law and order situation in Punjab and to revive the terrorism in the state, said the NIA in a statement."It was found that the conspiracy had its foot-prints in several countries including Pakistan, UK, Australia, France, Italy, and the UAE. As a part of the conspiracy, large amounts of funds were supplied from Italy, Australia and the UK to the perpetrators of the Killings namely, Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh. These funds were used by them to purchase weapons for executing the killings as well as other logistics," it said.

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The conspiracy included recruitment and training of Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh in Italy and Dubai, UAE, respectively. Accused Hardeep Singh is a permanent resident of Italy while accused Ramandeep Singh belongs to Ludhiana, said the NIA. Both of them were trained by one Gursharanbir Singh, a UK national. 

Another UK national, Jagtar Singh Johal, who has been arrested in the case, was involved in the funding of the conspiracy. Day-to-day coordination of the conspiracy was done by Pakistan based Harmeet Singh. Accused persons have been charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sections of the Arms Act,1959 as applicable against each of the accused persons including those who sold or facilitate the sale of weapons to the accused persons to carry out the killings. 

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(with ANI inputs)