Bathinda: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday morning raided the residence of Gurpreet Singh alias Sunny Joda, who works in immigration.
While Sunny was not at home during the raid, his brother Manpreet Singh said a few police personnel along with a NIA team arrived at the residence and examined the mobile phones of the family members. "During the raid that went on for four hours, the team asked me whether me and my brother have connections with criminals. I said we have no links with criminals."
Manpreet said since his brother works in immigration, several people call him from abroad. The team asked Manpreet details of calls received from abroad. He said the NIA team has summoned Gurpreet to the agency's office on January 27. He said the team did not clarify what the raid was about. Manpreet said the team also did not clarify whether any criminal element had called them.
The raid is reported to have conducted over the investigation into gangster Happy Passia's criminal activities. A special NIA court in Chandigarh had issued an open-dated, non-bailable warrant against the US-based Passia, in connection with the grenade attack at a house in Sector 10 on September 11, 2024. The NIA had also announced Rs 5 lakh reward on Passia in the grenade attack case. Passia's activities intensified after the arrest of Arshdeep Singh Gill, alias Arsh Dalla, in Canada, who is believed to be a key Khalistani Tiger Force member running the organisation of Khalistani Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar was killed during a shootout in Surrey, Canada, on October 28 last year. However, Gill was granted bail in Canada.
