Charge sheet filed in Hindu leader Gosain murder case

Chandigarh,May 4: The NIA today filed a chargesheet against fifteen accused in case number RC-18/2017/NIA/DLI in the Special NIA Court, Mohali. The case pertains to the killing of Hindu leader Ravinder Gosain in Ludhiana last year.

Gosain was a member of the RSS and had just returned from attending an RSS ‘shakha’ when he was shot dead outside his house in Ludhiana.

During investigation, it was found that the killing was part of a transnational conspiracy hatched by the senior leadership of the Khalistan Liberation Force. Eight incidents of targeted killings/ attempted killings were executed as part of this conspiracy between January, 2016 and October, 2017 in Punjab. All the persons targeted belonged to certain specific communities and organizations. The objective of the conspiracy was to destabilize the law and order situation in Punjab and to revive the fledgling terrorism in the state.

It was found that the conspiracy had its footprints in several countries including Pakistan, UK, Australia, France, Italy and the UAE. As part of the conspiracy, large amount of funds were supplied through Italy, Australia and the UK to the perpetrators of the killings/ attempted killings, viz. Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh. These funds were used by them to purchase weapons for executing the killings and other logistics.

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. Both these persons 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 @ PhD. The chargesheet is based on evidence collected from oral, documentary, material and electronic sources. Besides, evidence has been sought from several other countries.

5. Accused persons have been charged under sections 120B, 302, 34, 379, 416 of the IPC; sections 16, 17, 18, 18A, 18B, 20, 21 and 23 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act, 1959, including those who sold or facilitated the sale of weapons to the accused persons to carry out the killings/attempted killings.

6.Following accused persons have been chargesheeted :

1. Hardeep Singh @ Shera @ Pahalwaan

2. Ramandeep Singh @ Canadian @ Bagga

3. Dharminder Singh @ Guguni

4. Anil Kumar @ Kala

5. Jagtar Singh Johal @ Jaggi @ Johar

6. Amaninder Singh

7. Manpreet Singh @ Mani

8. Ravipal

9. Pahad Singh

10. Parvez @ Farru

11. Malook Tomar