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Journalism of Courage
Citing intelligence inputs that there will be attempts to free him if he is taken out,the Special Cell of Delhi Police has asked a Ludhiana court to allow court proceedings against a Khalistan Liberation Force militant through video conferencing.
Daya Singh Lahoria (50),who is currently lodged in Tihar jail,was extradited from the US in January 1997. He is to be produced before the district and sessions judge SP Bangarh in Ludhiana.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police said it has received inputs from central intelligence agencies that sympathisers of pro-Khalistan groups would try to free him while he is being taken for appearance in the Ludhiana court.
Lahoria was sentenced to life by a Jaipur court in 2004 for abducting the son of senior Congress leader Ram Niwas Mirdha. Lahoria and two others had abducted Rajendra Mirdha while he was on morning walk to put pressure on the then Narasimha Rao government for the release of KLF terrorist Devendra Pal Singh Bhullar,who is on death row,in 1994.
In 2007,the Special Cell arrested four Babbar Khalsa International militants and made Lahoria a co-accused in the case. Baljit Singh,one of the four accused,told police that he met Lahoria when he was lodged in Nabha Jail in Punjab.
He has militancy related cases registered against him in Punjab and needs to be taken to Ludhiana court for proceedings. We have inputs that there will be efforts to attack the police convoy and set him free. He has serious charges against him so we have decided to initiate the proceedings through video conferencing, said a senior police officer.
He has been booked by the Special Cell for waging war against the state. He was arrested as a co-conspirator in the case. Apart from Delhi he has cases registered against him in Kolkata and Punjab, said Vikas Padora,Lahoriyas counsel.
