New Delhi: An NIA court in Mohali has ordered the confiscation of land, in Punjab’s Moga district, belonging to Pakistan-based designated terrorist Lakhbir Singh alias Rode, the self-styled chief of banned Khalistan Liberation Front, an official said Wednesday.
The court ordered the confiscation of land at Kothe Gurupura (Rode) village of Smalsar Police station under section 33(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Under the section, a judge can confiscate moveable and immoveable property of a proclaimed offender involved in serious crimes.
The order came in a case registered by the NIA January 1, 2021 under various sections of the UAPA, Indian Penal Code and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances act.
Singh, a nephew of Jarnail Singh Bindrawale, was booked by the Punjab Police initially for his alleged involvement in a tiffin bomb blast case that took place September 15, 2021 in Jalalabad town of Fazilka district of Punjab.
Investigators claimed that Lakhbir Singh, also the self-styled Chief of proscribed terrorist organisation International Sikh Youth Forum, masterminded the whole conspiracy.
The probe indicated that he was working in collusion with his Pakistan-based ‘masters’ and that he had played a key role in sending consignments of terrorist hardware, including arms, ammunition, custom-made tiffin bombs, grenades, explosives as well as drugs, to carry out terrorist acts, particularly bomb blasts, to instil fear and terror among the people of Punjab.
Singh, a ‘listed individual terrorist’ under the UAPA, fled to Pakistan around 1996-97. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating six cases against him for his active involvement in terror activities between 2021-2023.
He stands accused of engaging in a wide array of terror activities and his criminal dossier includes armed attacks on law-enforcement personnel, orchestrating IED and bomb blasts, targeted killings of members of the minority community, extortion, fund-raising for terrorist operations, and instilling terror among the general populace.
He has also been chargesheeted by the NIA in terror related cases.
PTI