The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday conducted simultaneous searches at two locations in Punjab's Muktsar Sahib and Gurdaspur districts in connection with the Ludhiana court bomb blast case.

During these searches, cash amounting to Rs 10,16,000, mobile phones, SIM cards and diaries with incriminating content were seized, an NIA official said.

The NIA on January 7 filed a charge sheet against five accused including a Pakistan national in the matter.

Punjab Police's former Head Constable Gagandeep Singh, who planted the bomb at the court complex on December 23, 2021, was killed as it suddenly went off. Six others were injured.

The case was initially registered at a Ludhiana police station, but later, it was taken over by the NIA.

"During investigation, it has been revealed that Pakistan-based ISYF/KLF terrorist handler Lakhbir Singh Rode had planned to execute IED blasts at various locations in Punjab. In order to execute this plans, he, in association with Pakistan-based smugglers, recruited India-based operatives to smuggle IEDs and to carry out blasts to cause maximum casualties and to strike terror among the general public," the NIA said.

It said that in furtherance of the conspiracy, Rode, with the help of Pakistan-based cross-border arms-explosives-narcotics smuggler Zulfikar alias Pehalwan, Harpreet Singh alias Happy Malaysia, Surmukh Singh alias Sammu, Dilbagh Singh and Rajanpreet Singh, formed a terror gang to carry out blasts and smuggled weapons into India.

Rode used the smuggling channels of Pehalwan and his associates to deliver the IED to Gagandeep Singh.

(KB/ANS)