- Thursday, May 16, 2024
He was also detained for entering India from Pakistan in December 2023.
By: Twinkle Roy
A MAN, who was arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday (25) over his alleged participation in the attack on the Indian high commission in London in March 2023, was also detained for entering India from Pakistan the same year.
A resident of Hounslow in west London who runs a grocery store in the UK, Inderpal Singh Gaba was arrested in India for ‘unlawful activities’ under Section 13(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Section 2 of the Prevention of Insult of National Honour Act and Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, official sources of London said, Press Trust of India reported.
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On December 12 last year, Gaba was caught while trying to enter India at the Attari-Wagah border between the two neighbours after the NIA issued a look-out circular against several suspects involved in the protests in London.
Gaba’s mobile phone was seized and its data pulled out for further analysis.
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Two major violent protests were held in front of the India House in the British capital on Match 19 and 22. On March 19, a mob allegedly attacked Indian officials, vandalised the commission building and even insulted the Indian Tricolour. On the second day, the protesters chanted anti-India slogans, insulted the flag again and issued threats, according to the reports that the NIA logged later.
The NIA had conducted searches at 31 locations in the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan bordering Pakistan and examined several suspects. It had also sent a team to London, the PTI report added.
The investigation revealed that the twin protests in March 2023 were part of the bigger conspiracy to attack Indian missions and their officials.
The protests, which took place soon after the police in India’s Punjab began a state-wide crackdown on Amritpal Singh, a pro-Khalistan preacher and chief of ‘Waris Punjab De’ outfit who styles himself after the slain Khalistani militant of the 1980s Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, came up for discussions in the British parliament time and again and police presence outside the mission has been increased subsequently.
Singh is currently in a jail in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam along with nine of his associates.
In June last year, the NIA released five videos urging the general public to identify the protesters involved in the violence outside the mission.
This had come after a team of the NIA visited London to get details of the case besides interacting with Scotland Yard officials.
The federal agency took over the probe in April 2023 from the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, which had registered a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act as it involved illegal activities carried out by certain people holding Indian nationality abroad.
The protests outside the mission also saw diplomatic-level talks between India and the UK and the latter’s security minister Tom Tugendhat had told the House of Commons that the British government took the security of the Indian mission “extremely seriously”.
(with PTI inputs)
