Inmates detained by cops knew of plot to eliminate Dera man

PATIALA: An inmate of Nabha’s new district jail has told investigators that he knew of Gursewak Singh and Maninder Singh’s plan to murder Bargari sacrilege case prime accused Mahinderpal Bittu inside the prison on June 22.
Lakhvir Singh ‘Lakha’ is among the three inmates of the prison who have been detained for questioning in the case, even though they did not carry out the attack. Other than Lakha, police have detained Harpreet Singh ‘Happy’ and Jaspreet Singh ‘Nihala’. Nilaha is accused of murdering sacrilege accused Balwinder Kaur of Ghawaddi village in 2016. He has been detained as he had sworn to avenge the sacrilege of the holy book and he is suspected of have played a role in hatching the conspiracy to kill Mahinderpal.
Happy had tried to save Mahinderpal when he was attacked and ge has been detained to verify facts, police sources said.
Sources privy to investigations said Lakha knew about the plot to kill Mahinderpal. These sources said there were indications that Lakha maliciously held back information from jail authorities and helped the two accused by concealing the same.
Meanwhile, the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by chief minister Amarinder Singh to crack the conspiracy behind the murder of Mahinderpal is now focusing on Gursewak and Maninder. A team of the crime investigating agency (CIA) on Wednesday took both these accused to Nabha’s new district jail to reconstruct the sequence of events of the murder.
The team also asked them to identify other inmates and jail staff who were present in the vicinity of the area when the crime was committed on Saturday, but those who could not intervene.
Police have so far not ruled out the possibility of the conspiracy being hatched outside the jail. Davinder Bambiha gang has already taken responsibility for the crime and a mobile phone recovered from one of the inmates, Sunil Bhanot, has linked Gursewak with this gang through gangster Dharminder Guggni, who is an accused along with Gursewak in the murder case of Congress sarpanch Rajwinder Singh of Ludhiana.
IG A S Rai said the police team was trying to verify if the phone seized from Bhanot was used by Gursewak to plan the murder. He said investigations were on the right track and a breakthrough was expected in a day or two.
Meanwhile, the family of Maninder met him on Tuesday, after they moved an application before a local court to seek a meeting with him. Maninder’s brother Sandeep Singh said they met him briefly at the CIA office and he was in ‘chardi kala’ (happy). However, the family, which left home two days ago fearing a backlash, is yet to return. At present, it is living at the home of a close relative.