Chandigarh, Apr 18 (PTI) The intelligence wing of the Punjab Police on Monday arrested two close aides of fugitive gangster-turned-terrorist Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dalla and claimed to have thwarted possible efforts of foreign-based anti-national elements to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the state.

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Those arrested have been identified as Harsh Kumar and Raghav, both residents of Kot Ise Khan in Moga district. Police also recovered a foreign-made MP-5 gun and 44 live rounds from their possession.

Punjab's Director General of Police V K Bhawra said in a statement that in an intelligence-led operation, a team of State Special Operation Cell (SSOC), Amritsar, arrested the duo.

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He said during interrogation, Harsh revealed that he came into contact with Dalla via Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi of Shadiwala village in Moga, who was arrested by police in January 2022 with a consignment of grenades and arms.

After the arrest of Gopi, Dalla established contact with Harsh through encrypted apps and motivated him to work for him, said the DGP, while adding that Dalla had also sent funds to him on at least two occasions.

The present consignment was also arranged by Dalla, the state police chief said.

Additional Inspector General, SSOC Amritsar, Sukhminder Mann said that further investigations are being conducted to ascertain the channel through which the accused received the weapon and the purpose for which it was delivered to them.

An FIR in this regard was registered under relevant sections at SSOC, Amritsar. Dalla has also been named in this case, police said.

According to the statement, Dalla is a native of Moga and now based in Canada.

"Arsh Dalla is a very active gangster-turned-terrorist and has been involved in numerous gangster and terror-related activities in the recent past. Punjab Police have busted several modules backed by Dalla with the arrests of his close aides and recovering IEDs, hand grenades and other arms and ammunition..," said the statement.

(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)