The Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) has arrested a Lucknow resident from Delhi for his alleged affiliation with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the company stated on Wednesday.
Vikas Singh, who hails from Gomti Nagar Extension in Lucknow, had allegedly harboured members of the Bishnoi’s terror syndicate, which executed the RPG Assault on Punjab Police’s intelligence headquarters in Mohali in Might 2022.
On Might 17 this 12 months, the NIA raided three places in Uttar Pradesh, together with Singh’s condo in Lucknow, as a part of search operations carried out by the central company throughout six states in connection with circumstances associated to narco-terror-gangster nexus, NIA officers stated. Singh was in hiding since then.
The NIA offered him earlier than a reliable court docket in Delhi and procured his five-day police custody remand to interrogate him additional within the matter.
In a press notice, the NIA stated Singh had given shelter to Deepak Surakhpur and Divyanshu, who executed the RPG Assault, a number of instances at two places: his parental home in Ayodhya’s Devgarh village and his Lucknow condo.
The notice added Singh was himself booked in 10 circumstances, which embody these of homicide and try to homicide. Some have been registered underneath the Arms Act and the Gangster Act.
The NIA investigation revealed that Surakhpur was launched to Singh by Bishnoi’s pal and affiliate Vicky Midhukhera. Later, Singh launched Divyanshu, whom he already knew, to Bishnoi’s syndicate. Surakhpur and Divyanshu have been reportedly concerned in quite a few contract killings, together with that of businessman Sanjay Biyani in Nanded and one Rana Kandhowalia in Punjab.
The NIA officers stated Singh additionally harboured a suspect within the Rana Kandowalia homicide case, Rinku. Furthermore, in early 2020, after a double homicide case in Chandigarh (allegedly carried out on the behest of Bishnoi), the assailants Monu Dagar, Cheema and Rajan stayed in Lucknow with Singh. Their investigation has additionally revealed that many gangsters and their associates from different states have been harboured by Singh.
The NIA has, thus far, arrested 15 accused within the terror-gangster conspiracy case, and charge-sheeted 14 of them, together with Bishnoi. The chargesheet within the case was filed on March 24, 2023 underneath numerous sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Illegal Actions Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, and the Arms Act, 1959.