NIA arrests Deepak Ranga, the shooter who fired RPG at Punjab Police intelligence HQ

Deepak Ranga, the man accused of firing a Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG) at the Punjab Police Intelligence headquarters in Mohali last year, was arrested by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) on Wednesday.

Ranga, who was in hiding since the attack in May 2022, was apprehended from Gorakhpur.

Ranga is a resident of Surakpur village in Jhajjar district of Haryana is a close associate of Canada-based gangster-turned-terrorist Lakhbir Singh Sandhu (alias Landa) and Pakistan-based gangster-turned-terrorist Harvinder Singh Sandhu (alias Rinda).

Accused involved in other terror activities

The NIA said that Ranga has allegedly been receiving terror funds from Rinda and Landa. He's been involved in other terrorist and criminal offences, including violent murders.

The NIA had registered the case suo motu on September 20 last year after it emerged that terrorist outfits and terror elements based abroad were operating in tandem with leaders and members of organised criminal gangs operating in northern states of the country to commit targeted killings and violent criminal acts.

"It had emerged that the terror-gangster-drug smuggler network was also engaged in smuggling terrorist hardware such as arms, ammunition, explosives, IEDs, etc. across border through a widespread inter-state network of gunrunners, illegal arms and ammunition manufacturers and suppliers and explosive traffickers," the spokesperson said.