New Delhi:Amid the surging tensions between India and Canada over the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the NIA told the Supreme Court that a Canada-based man linked to the terrorist organisation, Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), had hatched a conspiracy to murder the Shaurya Chakra awardee teacher Balwinder Singh Sandhu in Punjab in 2020.
Sandhu was shot dead at his residence-cum-school in Bhikhiwind, District Tarn Taran, Punjab by two unidentified persons on October 16, 2020. The NIA filed the affidavit in response to a bail plea by the accused Harbhinder Singh. On Tuesday, the apex court had dismissed the plea.
The affidavit said that, during the investigation, it has emerged that the murder of Sandhu was conspired by Sunny Toronto, a resident of Canada (operative of KLF) and Lakhveer Singh Rode (self-styled chief of proscribed organisation KLF) in order to eliminate the anti-Khalistani entities in India.
The NIA said KLF’s leadership believes that they can revive the moribund Khalistan movement by targeting anti-Khalistani persons in India. The affidavit said: “with the aim to revive terrorism in India specially in Punjab, Rode and Toronto contacted Sukhmeet Pal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal to execute the murder of Sandhu”.
The NIA said that the arrested accused persons involved in the crime have revealed that they were instructed and tasked to commit the crime by accused Sukhmeet Pal Singh alias Sukh Bhikariwal, Sunny Toronto, a Khalistan Liberation Force operative, based in Canada and Lakhveer Singh alias Rode, who is a nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawala and Chief of terrorist outfit, International Sikh Youth Federation and Khalistan Liberation Force.
The NIA said Sandhu became one of the targets of the conspiracy, as he had been awarded Shaurya Chakra on April 14, 1993, for his brave struggle against terrorist elements during the peak of terrorism in Punjab. The NIA had re-registered the FIR in the case on January 26, 2021 on a notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
On the day of incident, as per the plan, the petitioner/accused Harbhinder Singh dropped co-accused Inderjit Singh at Guru Harkishan Public School, Sur Singh on the bike, early in the morning. The agency said the main shooter, Gurjit Singh alias Bha came on his bike and took Inderjit Singh with him, and then Inderjit Singh started driving the bike and after reaching at the house-cum-school of Comrade Balwinder Singh, Gurjit Singh entered the house and opened fire on Comrade Balwinder Singh. "He fired several shots there. After that Gurjit Singh and Inderjit Singh ran away from the spot," said the affidavit.
