Bathinda petrol bomb attack: 4th accused arrested; motive was to create fear, say police

Homoeopath couple’s cilnic was not the specific target, says superintendent of police (city) Narinder Singh; the police authorities and the couple had denied any extortion threats

The district police have arrested the fourth accused, identified as Harjinder Singh of Faridkot, in connection with the June 22 petrol bomb attack on a clinic run by a homoeopathic practitioner couple. Superintendent of police (city) Narinder Singh on Tuesday said Harjinder provided Sandeep Singh the contact number of a person suspected to be a Pakistan-based ISI-backed gangster, Shahzad Bhatti.

The district police are treating the case as a terrorist act, with Section 113 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita added to the FIR.

Harjinder and Sandeep, a final-year college student who is already in police custody, are cousins. “Our teams are working on all angles. Initial investigation suggests that the homoeopath practitioner couple was not the specific target. The crime was committed for fearmongering,” said the SP.

According to the police, accused Nakul Kumar and Gurwinder Singh threw a petrol bomb at the clinic run by Rajni Jindal, a BJP district executive member, and her husband Tarsem Garg, chief warden of the Civil Defence Corps. No one was injured in the attack. The couple had recently switched to the BJP from AAP.

The police authorities and the couple had denied any extortion threats. Immediately after the bombing, Sandeep allegedly sent a video recording of the incident to a contact in Pakistan. The entire incident sent the state and federal security agencies into a tizzy as the clinic is located opposite the regional office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The district police are treating the case as a terrorist act, with Section 113 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) added to the FIR. A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had also visited the spot.

Sandeep, Nakul and Gurwinder belong to Khuian Sarwar village in Fazilka district. According to officials familiar with the investigation, Harjinder was following Bhatti’s Instagram page.”Investigators recovered Harjinder’s mobile phone, where investigators found a screenshot of a contact number, which is suspected to be of Bhatti. Harjinder shared the screenshot with Sandeep, who later asked Nakul and Gurwinder to throw a petrol bomb,” said the official.

Officials said Harjinder’s brother has a criminal background, and he is lodged in Haryana’s Sonepat prison. District police authorities said Sandeep was promised ₹10 lakh to arrange the strike and he had received ₹5,000 in advance through a UPI transaction.

“The investigation has established that Sandeep used the phone of one Satpal Singh of Khuian Sarwar to receive ₹5,000. Police teams are working to ascertain the identity of the sender, as the phone of a Tarn Taran man is prima facie suspected to have been used to transfer the token amount,” said an official, requesting anonymity.