Two days after the arrest of a Panjab University student in connection with alleged terror funding, the State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) launched a hunt to nab more people involved in such activities. The SSOC on Saturday arrested Harshveer Singh Bajwa, a student of third semester of MA in Gandhian Studies at PU, for allegedly sending Rs 20,000 to Manpreet Singh alias Mani, one of the shooters of Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep Kumar. Sources in the SSOC told The Indian Express that Bajwa belongs to a well-to-do farmers' family at Bhawanigarh in Sangrur district and knew gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar. At Brar’s insistence, Bajwa had transferred the money to Mani. “Harshveer was active in student politics and knew Bishnoi. He was in contact with some of Bishnoi’s men. We are investigating whether Harshveer had helped any other criminal in the past,” a police officer said. The SSOC, however, refused to divulge whether Harshveer received money from abroad. It was alleged that Harshveer was part of a module of criminals, including Goldy Brar who had taken responsibility for the dera follower’s murder, operating from abroad. The SSOC did not rule out the possibility that Harshveer was part of a sleeper cell which was being activated by Brar and other radicals backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). “The ISI is using their assets based in various countries like Philippines, the USA, Thailand and Dubai to send money to the sleeper cells in Punjab to fan violence. We shall soon make more arrests in the coming days,” the police officer said.
