An NIA court has ordered confiscation of land belonging to Designated Individual Terrorist (DIT) Lakhbir Singh alias Rode in Punjab's Moga district.
Singh, who is a Pakistan-based self-styled chief of banned terror outfits like International Sikh Youth Federation and Khalistan Liberation Force was charged under the UAPA, 1967 Section 33 (5). The land belonging to him is located in village Kothe Gurupura (Rode).
He was allegedly the brain behind the blast in a Ludhiana court in December 2021 that killed a terror suspect and injured six civilians. He reportedly smuggled the IED that exploded from Pakistan with a drug-smuggling ring's help. His accomplice, Harpreet Singh alias Happy Malaysia, was arrested in December 2022 at the Indian Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, when he retured from Malaysia.
The latest court order is based on a 2021 case, wherein he was charged under Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Explosive Substances Act 1908, Sections 16, 17, 18, 18B, 20, 38 and 39 of UAPA along with Sections 21B, 27A and 29 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and IPC Section 120B, according to ANI.
"Working in collusion with his Pakistan-based 'masters', Lakhbir Singh alias Rode played a key role in sending consignments of terrorist hardware, including arms, ammunition, custom-made tiffin bombs, grenades, explosives as well as drugs, to carry out terrorist acts, particularly bomb blasts, to instil fear and terror among the people of Punjab," NIA said.
"He stands accused of engaging in a wide array of terror activities. His criminal dossier includes armed attacks on law enforcement personnel, orchestrating IED and bomb blasts, targeted killings of members of the minority community, extortion, fundraising for terrorist operations, and instilling terror among the general populace," the agency added.
-- with inputs from agencies