Chandigarh grenade blast: 2nd accused held; duo was offered Rs 5 lakh, say cops

CHANDIGARH/AMRITSAR: Punjab Police arrested the second accused, allegedly involved in the blast at a house in Sector 10, Chandigarh, from Gurdaspur in Punjab on Saturday. The accused, identified as Vishal Masih, had accompanied Rohan Masih, the main accused who had lobbed the hand grenade, to the crime site twice in three days, including the day of blast.

Rohan was arrested by the SSOG and central agency, in a joint operation, from Amritsar on Friday.

The duo had plans to flee to Jammu and Kashmir after committing the crime, said sources involved with the investigation of the case in Amritsar on Saturday.

Rohan, who belonged to Passia village under the Ramdass police station in Amritsar, was remanded to 6-day police custody by the court. Rohan is in the custody of the state special operation cell (SSOC).

Sources said after committing the crime, both the accused wanted to flee to Jammu and Kashmir, but they came to Amritsar where one Rohan was arrested.

During interrogation, Rohan revealed that he was offered Rs 5 lakh to execute the grenade attack in Sector 10. The assailants had received around Rs 20,000 from US-based terrorist Happy Passia so far, cops said.

UT police will bring the main accused on a production warrant after Sept 19. UT police team also interrogated the main accused Rohan Masih in Amritsar. After the completion of six days police remand in Punjab, Chandigarh police will move an application for the production warrant of Rohan and would bring him to city for further interrogation.

Meanwhile, the district crime cell handed over the accused auto driver, Kuldeep, to Sector 3 police station for further interrogation in the case. Sector 3 police took him to Punjab for the probe.

UT police are also scrutinising call details of Kuldeep to establish his links with the main perpetrators. Kuldeep had earlier claimed that he had met the assailants second time coincidentally and was not aware about their intention of carrying out a grenade attack in the house in Sector 10. The accused auto driver is currently in four-day police remand. The district crime cell of UT police had nabbed Kuldeep within hours of the incident from ISBT-43 on Wednesday.

Punjab police DGP Gaurav Yadav on Wednesday claimed that the grenade attack was planned by Pakistan-based BKI terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu, alias Rinda, and ISI supported him to execute the attack.

On Wednesday evening, Rohan along with Vishal had lobbed a grenade at a house in Sector 10, targeting at former Punjab Police SP Jaskirat Singh Chahal. However, no one was hurt in the blast and only window glasses and pots were damaged.

Rohan and Vishal had reached Sector 10 in an autorickshaw from ISBT-43. They had also done a recce in the same autorickshaw on Sept 9. A day after the attack, BKI terrorist Happy Passia had claimed responsibility for blast on social media.

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