{VHP leader’s murder in Nangal} NIA files chargesheet against Pak-based BKI chief, 6 others

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet against Pakistan-based chief of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Wadhawa Singh, and five others in connection with the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Vikas Prabhakar alias Vikas Bagga earlier this year, the agency said on Saturday.
Bagga was shot dead by terrorists belonging to a BKI module at his confectionary shop at Nangal in Rupnagar district on April 13.
“The NIA chargesheet filed on Friday has named Wadhawa Singh alias Babbar, along with two other absconding accused and three arrested accused, as the key perpetrators of the gruesome killing,” the agency said in a statement.
The Union ministry of home affairs declared Wadhawa Singh a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act or UAPA.
Two of the three arrested accused have been identified as shooters Mandeep Kumar alias Mangli and Surinder Kumar alias Rika— both residents of Nawanshahar.
The third arrested accused named in the chargesheet was identified as Gurpreet Ram alias Gora, also from Nawanshahr.
While Wadhawa Singh is believed to be currently based in Pakistan, the two absconders have been identified as Harjit Singh alias Laddi of Nawanshahar and Kulbeer Singh alias Sidhu of Yamunanagar, Haryana, who provided the arms, ammunition and funds to carry out the attack.
The NIA took over the case from the state police on May 9 and found a transnational conspiracy of BKI behind the attack.
“Several members of the BKI module based in various countries came together to carry out the targeted killing,” the agency said.
“Wadhawa Singh from Pakistan directed Germany-based nodes, namely Harjit Singh and Kulbeer Singh to undertake the killing. Roles of Dubai-based logistics providers and India-based weapons suppliers have also figured in the investigation, which is continuing,” it said.
Under Singh’s command, BKI has been involved in several terror attacks in India including bombing Air India Kanishka plane flight 182 in June 1985, which resulted in a mid-air explosion and death of 329 passengers; assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in Chandigarh in August 1995, through a human bomb in which more than a dozen other staff members had died; bomb blasts at Liberty and Satyam cinema halls in New Delhi causing injuries to 40 people in May 2005; and bomb blasts at Shingar Cinema, Ludhiana, killing six people and causing injuries to 35 in October 2007, among others.