A day after the arrest of dreaded terrorist — Khalistan liberation Front chief Harminder Singh Mintoo — investigators have identified the suspected arms supplier of the Nabha jailbreak plot as one Mani, a resident of Mudaki village in Firozepur in Punjab.

Mintoo reportedly told police that he knew the whereabouts of Mani and will help police in arresting him.

“Mani had met Mintoo in Firozepur and handed him the Springfield 9mm gun with six live cartridges. Mintoo confessed that while escaping he had met Mani in Haryana and received the gun, along with the cartridges, from him,” a senior police official told The Pioneer, on the condition of anonymity.

The police official said while interrogating Mintoo, he said he knew about the current location of Mani who is in Firozepur but after his arrest he might have fled to Haryana or the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

“Accordingly, a Special Cell Team will take Mintoo to Punjab, Haryana and Firozepur to arrest a terrorists and gangsters affiliated with various Khalistani terrorist groups involved in unlawful activities and bust the syndicate,” the official added.

The official said they are getting help of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh police in their efforts to bust the entire nexus. Medical examination of Mintoo will also be conducted every two days at a Government hospital.

A senior official involved in the investigations said Mintoo is denying that he was actively involved in the jailbreak but decided to flee at the first available opportunity.

He has been trying to mislead the probe but we have gathered evidence to prove that he was part of the conspiracy and was helped by outsiders who wanted him to be out from the jail, said the jail official, adding that there are hundreds of intelligence intercepts to suggest that Pakistani spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has been trying to revive moribund Sikh militancy in Punjab and Mintoo’s escape from the jail was part of the conspiracy.

Mintoo was arrested by a team of Special Cell in Delhi at the Nizamuddin Railway station in the wee hours of Monday while he was booking a train ticket to Palwal, close to Maharashtra.

“After fleeing from jail on Sunday, Mintoo and terrorist Kashmeer Singh were dropped by fugitive gangster Palwinder Singh in a Fortuner to Kaithal in Haryana from where the duo split and Mintoo took a jeep to Kurukshetra and subsequently a bus to Panipat followed by a bus to Delhi,” said Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Arvind Deep.

Police on Monday said Mintoo had planned to go to Maharashtra and sneak into Goa from where all logistics were ready to fly him to Germany.

Mintoo has stayed in Goa for 18 years from mid-1980’s to early 2000s with his family. His father is a contractor in Goa. His wife is currently is in Canada and two of his children are in Australia. Mintoo had also planned to escape to Thailand where he had set up his bases and also received training from Pakistan’s ISI but cancelled it at the last moment in order to avoid suspicion.

A Delhi court on Monday sent Mintoo to seven days of police custody.  “Teams were deployed at bus terminals, railways stations and border points and SHO’s and DCP’s of each district were asked to be in field and also check on guest houses and hotels,” said the special CP.