Ludhiana Court Blast: Punjab STF Arrests Alleged IED Supplier, Minor Among Three Other Suspects Held

According to the STF, three IEDs were sent from Pakistan to Punjab through drones, out of which, one was used for the Ludhiana blast.

Last year's Ludhiana district court blast had left one dead and six injured. (File Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Punjab Special Task Force (STF) on Friday arrested Dilbagh Singh, accused of supplying improvised explosive device (IED) for the Ludhiana court blast that happened in December last year. STF caught Dilbagh along with three more accomplices in Amritsar. The three accused persons allegedly provided to Gagandeep, the sacked constable who carried out the court blast.

According to the STF, three IEDs were sent from Pakistan to Punjab through drones, out of which, one was used for the Ludhiana blast.

One among the three arrested with Dilbagh is reported to be a minor. According to officials, the suspect used the minor to arrange mobile SIM cards that were used to contact handlers in Pakistan. STF is considering getting the minor discharged from the court.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other central agencies will be interrogating the accused.

In March, the NIA conducted raids at two locations in Punjab in connection with the Ludhiana district court blast.

The NIA claimed to have seized several incriminating documents including digital evidence like mobile phones during those searches conducted in the Khanna region in Ludhiana, news agency ANI reported.

The case was initially registered on December 23 last year by Punjab Police the day when the bomb blast took place on the court premises. The NIA took over the investigation on January 13 this year.

During the investigation, the NIA said it identified the person who died in the blast as Gagandeep Singh, a resident of Khanna. Soon after the blast, Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar informed that the explosion was heard near the Record Room on the second floor of the Ludhiana Court complex.

The blast was so powerful that one of the walls in the complex got damaged and the windows of some vehicles parked on the premises were shattered. The district court was functioning when the explosion took place.

The explosion had left one dead and six injured. This was the second major blast in Ludhiana after the Shingar Cinema blast that claimed the lives of six persons in 2007.

(With Agency Inputs)