NIA charges Babbar Khalsa chief with VHP neta's murder

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday chargesheeted Pakistan-based chief of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) Wadhawa Singh alias Babbar and five other terrorists in a case relating to the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Vikas Prabhakar @ Vikas Bagga in Punjab.
Bagga was shot dead by terrorists belonging to a BKI module at his confectionary shop at Nangal, district Roopnagar, Punjab, on April 13 this year.
The NIA chargesheet names Babbar, along with two other absconding accused Harjit Singh @ Laddi and Kulbeer Singh @ Sidhu, from Punjab and Haryana respectively but currently based in Germany. NIA had earlier declared a Rs 10 lakh cash award each for information leading to the arrest of Harjit and Kulbeer.
Babbar, designated an individual terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, hails from Kapurthala in Punjab but is currently based in Pakistan. He, along with Harjit and Kulbeer, had provided the arms, ammunition and funds etc to carry out the fatal attack on Bagga, NIA said on Saturday.
The three arrested accused chargesheeted on Friday are Bagga's shooters Mandeep Kumar @ Mangli and Surinder Kumar @ Rika, besides Gurpreet Ram alias Gora. All three hail from Nawanshahr in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, Punjab.
NIA, which took over the case on May 9, 2024, claimed to have unearthed a transnational conspiracy of BKI behind the terror attack. Several members of the BKI module based in various countries had come together to carry out the targeted killing.
The investigation revealed Wadhawa Singh from Pakistan directed Germany-based nodes, namely Harjit Singh @ Laddi and Kulbeer Singh @ Sidhu, to undertake the killing. Roles of Dubai-based logistics providers and India-based weapons suppliers have also figured in the probe. A couple of months ago, another accused Dharmendar Kumar alias Kunal was nabbed by NIA and Delhi Police in Ludhiana. He had allegedly procured the illegal arms and ammunition for killing Bagga from MP and gave them to the shooters.