New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday filed two supplementary charge sheets against 12 key members of the dreaded Lawrence Bishnoi and Bambiha gangs as part of its probe into terrorist-gangster-drug smuggler networks, an official said.

In a related development, a special court here declared seven absconders as proclaimed offenders in a multi-state terrorist-gangster nexus case, the official said. Among those declared as proclaimed offenders was "listed terrorist" Arshdeep Dala of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).

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In the supplementary charge sheets, the NIA named three members of the Bishnoi gang, including Lakhbir Singh alias "Landa", an important member of the proscribed terror outfit Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), and nine members of the Bambiha gang, an agency spokesperson said.

With these, the total number of accused charge-sheeted by the NIA in the two cases, both registered on August 26 last year, went up to 38.

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Earlier, on March 21 and 24, the NIA had filed two separate charge sheets against 12 members of the Bambiha terror-gangster syndicate and 14 members of the Bishnoi terror-gangster-smuggler network.

Besides Landa, the first supplementary charge sheet was filed against Dalip Kumar Bishnoi alias “Bhola” and Surendra Singh alias “Chiku”. Landa, who is absconding, is a close associate of Harwinder Singh alias "Rinda", Bishnoi and Goldy Brar, the spokesperson said.

The official said Landa has been handling the terror-criminal syndicate from Canada. "He has been closely involved in conspiring and commissioning and execution of the killings of prominent social, religious and political persons and professionals, besides providing shelter and funding to absconders/gangsters, while based in Canada," the official said.

The spokesperson said Bhola and Chiku are close associates of charge-sheeted accused Bishnoi, Anmol, Kala Jatheri and their associates Anil Chippi and Naresh Sethi. They are involved in arms and drugs smuggling, and also provide logistical and financial support to the Bishnoi terror-gangster network.

"All three have been charged with criminal conspiracy to unleash a wave of terror and extortion and carry out targeted killings of prominent and known social and religious leaders, doctors, businessmen and professionals, along with extortion, threats and intimidation on a large scale.

"Besides having links with leaders of terror outfits and conspirators in Pakistan, Landa is also in contact with pro-Khalistani elements based in Canada, Nepal and other countries,” the spokesperson said.

In the second supplementary charge sheet, the NIA has slapped charges on nine members of the Bambiha gang, including Sukhdool Singh alias “Sukha Duneke”, Chhenu Pehalwan, Daler Kotia, Dinesh Gandhi and Sunny Dagar alias “Vikram”.

"Sukhdool and Sunny are key associates of Arshdeep Dala, a 'listed individual terrorist' working at the behest of KTF who was charge-sheeted earlier in March this year,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the NIA special court in Delhi declared seven charge-sheeted accused, including Dala, as proclaimed offenders.

"All of them have been operating as full-fledged 'communication and control centres' of various leaders and members of these organised terror and crime syndicates from abroad, including the USA, UAE , Thailand, Philippines and Canada, with active association of the key executioners and operatives at the ground level in India,” the spokesperson said.

The NIA said they are executing and conspiring with various gang leaders lodged in jails to threaten and terrorise singers, industrialists, political functionaries and sportspersons to extort money from them, even resorting to their killings if they fail to pay up.

"These absconders have been providing safe havens to the absconding associates of these gang leaders. The money so extorted is used for furtherance of the terrorist activities and for providing logistic support to various gangs, including the Bambiha gang, active in India,” the NIA spokesperson said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)