Chandigarh: Two persons, including a woman, have been arrested from Punjab in connection with the Sri Ganganagar railway track blast case in Rajasthan. The suspects were arrested in a joint operation of Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), Sri Ganganagar Police and Punjab Police.
The two have been identified as 21-year-old Mahakdeep Kaur and 22-year-old Davinder Singh.
According to the police, the entire incident has a Pakistan link. The arrested woman was allegedly in contact with two handlers based in the neighbouring country.
One handler was known by the name ‘Chacha’, while the other was known as ‘Shah’, officials claimed. They trapped the woman by engaging in romantic conversations and providing her with money, in a trend police said has become frequent with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI.
The ISI had used a similar method earlier to entrap a woman named Babita, a resident of Ganganagar, the police said.
Mahakdeep was living separately from her husband, who is currently incarcerated on charges related to drug trafficking. According to the police, ISI handlers target vulnerable women, often those living alone, by initiating romantic conversations and offering them money. Investigations have revealed that the woman received payment to carry out the blast on the railway track, as reported by NDTV.
Two weapons, 46 cartridges, and Rs 30,000 in cash were recovered from the woman. Three other individuals were also taken into custody in this connection.
The three are suspected of having assisted the accused by providing them with accommodation, a motorcycle, and transport to the crime scene.
The entire operation was coordinated by Dinesh M N, ADG, Rajasthan Police, Nitin Chaudhary, ASP, Ganganagar, Manish Sharma, ASP, ATS, and Aditya, SP, Gurdaspur.
The blast had occurred on the night of November 3, at approximately 9.45 pm, on a railway track near Ramsinghpur in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. It shattered two railway sleepers, damaged the track, and created a crater approximately two and a half feet deep.
An Anupgarh-Suratgarh passenger train had passed along the same track about 75 minutes before the blast.
