Punjab police has achieved a major success, in its drive against wanted terrorists, with the arrest of top Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) terrorist Ramandeep Singh ‘Goldy’ from Chennai airport in the intervening night of November 5-6.
“As part of the ongoing exercise of tracking down wanted terrorists abroad, Ramandeep Singh was traced to Thailand,” Punjab Police Inspector General Gaurav Yadav said. A two-member police party of the counter intelligence unit camped in Thailand for three weeks in September-October 2014, but Goldy managed to escape to Malaysia. He was later tracked down in Malaysia, and in coordination with the central agencies and Malaysian authorities, he brought to Chennai early Thursday “and put under arrest at the Chennai airport”, Yadav said. Ramandeep Singh is the second major Khalistani terrorist to be arrested by Punjab Police in recent weeks.
Rattandeep Singh, chief of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan and a former associate of terrorists Paramjit Singh Panjwar and Wadhawa Singh, was caught in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.Nabbed by the Punjab State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) on September 17, Rattandeep was based in Pakistan since 1993, and was wanted in a number of cases of bomb blasts.
Yadav said that the counter intelligence wing of Punjab Police had started an exercise of tracking wanted terrorists staying abroad. “leads about Ramandeep Singh were obtained as a part of this process,” he said. Ramandeep, who belongs to Bassi Pathana in Ropar district, came into contact with Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorist Darshan Singh who introduced him to the Britain-based terrorist Paramjit Singh, a police officer said. A terrorist conspiracy to assassinate Rulda Singh, head of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, a wing of the RSS was hatched in the UK by Paramjit Singh and executed by Ramandeep Singh in India.
Two UK-based persons, Gursharan Singh and Piara Singh, were assigned the task of “shooters” who had to kill the target, while reccee and masterminding in India was done by Ramandeep Singh with his associates Darshan Singh and Jagmohan Singh. Rulda Singh was shot at on July 28, 2009, while closing the rear gate of his house after parking his vehicle in the backyard, and, succumbed to his injuries on August 15, 2009, at PGI, Chandigarh.
A Case FIR No 279 dated July 29, 2009, under sections 302, 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 25 of the Arms Act, 15, 16, 17 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, was registered in police station Tripuri, Patiala district in this regard. After attacking Rulda Singh, Goldy escaped to Thailand from where he went to Pakistan and underwent a two-week arms training. He briefly returned to India assuming that din after Rulda murder has subsided as initially there was no breakthrough.
The case was cracked by the Punjab Police in September 2009, and Jagmohan Singh and Darshan Singh were arrested. Raids were conducted to nab Goldy who managed to escape to Nepal. Goldy spent next one-and-a-half years in Nepal making it his base and also managed to get a forged Nepali passport issued in the assumed name of Sah Barhamdev. During his stay in Nepal, he developed association with Pakistan-trained terrorist Harminder Singh alias Raj in March-April 2010, and the duo roped in Jaswinder Singh, Gurjant Singh and Manjinder Singh to raise a terrorist module which was responsible for two bomb blasts in Patiala and Ambala.