On Friday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) announced that a most wanted terrorist and the main conspirator behind the Ludhiana court bomb blast had been arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
An NIA spokesperson said Harpreet Singh alias “Happy Malaysia”, a resident of Amritsar, Punjab, was arrested shortly after he arrived at the airport from Kuala Lumpur carrying a reward of Rs 10 lakh.
The NIA had earlier announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for Harpreet Singh, against whom a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) from a special court had been issued and a Look-Out-Circular LOC had been opened, the NIA official said.
Ludhiana Court Building was the scene of a massive bomb blast. The explosion resulted in the death of one person and the injury of six others.
Harpreet Singh, an associate of Lakhbir Singh Rode, a Pakistan-based self-styled chief of International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), Punjab, was one of the conspirators of the Ludhiana Court Building blast, according to the spokesperson.
According to Rode, he coordinated the delivery of the IED that was used in the Ludhiana Court Complex blast to his Indian associates on Rode’s instructions. According to the NIA official, the arrested suspect was also involved and wanted in other cases, including the smuggling of explosives, arms, and drugs.
The Punjab police initially registered the case on December 23, 2021, which was later taken over by the NIA on January 13, 2022, the official said, adding that further investigation was underway.