Centre, Punjab to jointly probe Ludhiana blast, says Minister Kiren Rijiju

The deceased in Ludhiana court blast was identified as Gagandeep Singh, a dismissed head constable of Khanna Police. Singh was arrested by STF with heroin in August 2019 and booked under NDPS. More than a dozen suspects connected to Singh are being questioned by the police.

This came on a day when law and justice minister Kiren Rijiju visited Ludhiana and said the blast case will be jointly investigated by the Punjab government and the Centre.

Stressing that his visit was not political, Rijiju said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is following the post-explosion developments "very seriously". However, cops are yet to make a breakthrough in investigations into the Thursday blast which killed one person and left five injured.


On Friday, the home secretary held a high-level internal meeting at the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to discuss the court explosion.

IB director Arvind Kumar, CRPF &NIA chief Kuldiep Singh, and BSF DG Pankaj Singh attended the meeting along with other officials of the NIA and MHA, official sources said.

"The Government of India is taking the Ludhiana blast very seriously. The PM has expressed concern over the incident. We will investigate it in depth and professionally," Rijiju said.

The minister said he visited the court complex and a detailed investigation would be done.

"The main purpose of my visit is to tell people of Ludhiana that the Modi government will work with the state government on this case and all similar cases," he said. "The attempts being made to create disturbances in Punjab and the rest of India, whether by internal or external factors, the government will address it."

The minister said, "We will not work in silos. The state and Centre will work together for the people of Punjab."

In the Thursday blast, explosives had been concealed in a toilet on the second floor of the court building.

A first information report (FIR) has been filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, Explosive Substance Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The teams of NSG and NIA reached Ludhiana on Thursday night but are yet to confirm the nature of explosives and IEDs, if any, used in the blast.

Kapurthala sacrilege
Punjab Police on Friday arrested the caretaker of a Kapurthala gurdwara for the lynching of a man suspected of sacrilege. The caretaker has been charged with murder. The lynching took place at Nizampur village in Kapurthala on Sunday, a day after a man was lynched over an alleged sacrilege bid at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Earlier on Friday, Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi said the government is mulling over registering a case of murder as no evidence has been found backing the charge of desecration.

"We did not find any sacrilege attempt or any evidence to back it. One person ran the gurdwara. This thing has moved to murder and inquiry is on," he said, adding that the FIR will be amended.