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Nawanshahr grenade blast mastermind Rinda new challenge for Punjab police
With Nawanshahr grenade blast said to be the handiwork of gangster-turned-Khalistani terrorist Rinda, activities of Pakistan’s new poster boy have emerged as a new challenge for Punjab Police
With the Nawanshahr grenade blast said to be the handiwork of gangster-turned-Khalistani terrorist Harvinder Singh, alias Rinda, the activities of Pakistan’s new go-getter man for terror operations in Punjab have emerged as a new challenge for the Punjab Police.
Rinda’s profile prepared by the intelligence wing of the state police reveals that his original name was Harwinder Singh Sandhu. Rinda belongs to Sarhali village of Tarn Taran district of Amritsar and was living an ordinary life till 2008 when he landed in jail after a scuffle during a family feud.
After getting in touch with criminals in jails, Rinda shifted his base to Nanded in Maharashtra and joined the world of crime and expanded his base to Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana.
He is wanted in more than 24 cases of murder, contract killing, robbery, extortion and snatchings. In Punjab, Roopnagar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar were his base.
Rinda provided ₹4 lakh to three accused, Manish Kumar, alias Mani Baba of Bains village in Nawanshahr, Ramandeep Singh, alias Jakhu of Atta village in Goraya in Jalandhar and Pradeep Kumar Bhatti of Sahlon village in SBS Nagar. The police also recovered a hand grenade from the accused. During interrogation, Ramandeep confessed that Manish and he had thrown the hand grenade at the Nawanshahr CIA office on the directions of Rinda.
Before the Nawanshahr grenade attack on a police station on the intervening night of November 7 and 8 in 2021, Rinda was also found to have played the role of the mastermind during a bomb blast in Ludhiana court in December last year.
With the help of his old contacts, Rinda had allegedly provided all logistic help and the grenade to the person who had died while planting a bomb inside the washroom of the court.
The intelligence officials of Punjab reveal that in 2018, Rinda while in India had come in contact with Khalistani operatives settled in foreign countries and Pakistan’s Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI). Using these contacts, Rinda, an absconder, got married to Harpreet Kaur of Dhol Kalan village of Amritsar district in 2018 and later moved to Pakistan with his family using a fake passport.
According to a senior intelligence wing officer, Rinda is settled in Lahore under the protection of the ISI and had joined Babbar Singh Wadhawa-led Babbar Khalsa International (BKI).
The intelligence officials said Rinda was at one point of time ready to surrender before the Punjab Police but with riders that the police in return will eliminate some of his rival gangsters. The riders were rejected by a senior Punjab police officer, who was in touch with the gangster through a source, it is learnt.
Rinda’s close association with Wadhawa had emerged during an attack on singer Parmish Verma in Mohali in which the main accused and gangster Dilpreet Singh had told the police that his aide Rinda was in touch with Babbar Khalsa chief and had requested him to provide arms and money so that he could work for him.
“After another main face of the Khalistani terror enjoying shelter in Pakistan Harmeet Singh PhD was killed near Lahore in 2020, there are inputs that the ISI was using Rinda to the full. Rinda has strong and old contacts in Punjab and Pakistan’s go-getter for Punjab plans,” said a senior intelligence official.
His profile available with the police reveals that he had also undergone plastic surgery on his face and hands. In India, he had worked closely with gangster Jaipal Bhullar, who was killed in an encounter during a joint operation by the Punjab and West Bengal police.
