3 held in RDX-haul case, remanded to 3-day police custody

Inside the scene was more animated as a battery of defence lawyers and handcuffed accused had heated discussions, even as the ACMM went into his chamber to write the order.

On July 10 the Delhi police recovered 18 kgs of RDX, four timers, an AK-47 assault rifle, two Chinese-made pistols, 230 cartridges, eight hand grenades and 10 detonators from a truck in Punjabi Bagh in West Delhi. The truck was allegedly coming from Batala in Punjab. The driver Raj Kumar and his companion Gurcharan were arrested and remanded to police custody till July 20.

Investigating officer (IO) Ishwar Singh submitted that Gurcharan and Raj Kumar “confessed” that three Tihar jail inmates — Satender Pal alias Twinkle, Gurshewak Singh alias Babla alias Nirmal and Mohkam Singh alias Gill — had hatched a conspiracy to smuggle the explosives into Delhi.

The police claims the explosives were to be used by the Punjab-based terrorist outfit Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) to target several VIPs. Delhi Police chief V.N. Singh had earlier said: “We are yet to find the names of the VIPs. But it is clear that Delhi is very high on the list of targets for terrorists.”

The three have been in judicial custody in Tihar jail for varying periods of time. While Gill and Babla are alleged BKI militants and have been in custody for six and 12 years respectively, Twinkle is an accused in the sensational Tis Hazari shootout case — where undertrialsd were killed — and has been in Tihar for nearly a year.

In their application for five-days police custody remand for the three accused, the police said that they needed the time to “unearth the entire plan, source of supply, ultimate use of weapons.” The police allege that Rajkumar and Gurcharan said in their disclosure statements that Babla was in contact with BKI on a cellular and also that Babla and Gill instructed Rajkumar to bring the explosives to Delhi. A member of the investigation team said outside the court today: “These people are trying to wage war against the Government and we have to unearth the conspiracy.”

Meanwhile defence lawyers maintained that the police claim to nab “militants” especially before January 26 and August 15 “in their attempt to assure the public that they are doing their job. In the past few years people anticipate trouble on these two days, and the police like to show that they have saved the day. But most of these cases eventually end up in acquittals.”

“The three men are not connected and were in different cells. Even if the mobile phone argument is accepted, how come the police has not been able to find them? They claim to know that cellphones were being used, that SIM cards were changed and that calls were made at odd hours of the night. Then where are the phones? And if these phones were being used then it is a security lapse on the part of the jail officials,” said another defence lawyer.

Twinkle chose to argue his own case, continuously maintaining that he was in no way connected to the other alleged militants. His mother Kulwant Kaur sat confused and dazed in the crowded courtroom. As she wiped away the tears that there streaming down her wrinkled cheeks, she said: “You are sitting next to me and talking, that doesn’t mean that we have any other connection? These people are trying to frame my son. He doesn’t know these other people. All of them have been in Tihar for a long time. Why is it that only now they are being accused of this new crime?”

But there is no one who can answer her questions. As the police took her only son away she helplessly looked up towards him. Twinkle bent to touch her feet, and as she placed her quivering left hand on his shoulder the tears started to flow. But she managed to ask: “Should I bring you some rotis?” There was no reply. The policemen had whisked him away.