Probe hits a wall, Ambala cops close hand grenades seizure case

Ambala superintendent of police Jashandeep Singh Randhawa on Tuesday said that it was established that the grenades were made in China and could have been dropped by drones through Pakistan along the international border

Over five months after four live hand grenades with Chinese link were recovered in Ambala’s Shahzadpur, the case has been closed as untraced after investigators failed to collect any evidence related to it.

Probe hits a wall, Ambala cops close hand grenades seizure case

Speaking to HT, Ambala superintendent of police Jashandeep Singh Randhawa on Tuesday said that it was established that the grenades were made in China and could have been dropped by drones through Pakistan along the international border.

“Our teams investigated on forensic and cyber angles too, but there was no evidence to reach out for the accused. A team also reached Madhya Pradesh to trace the link into the sack recovered from the site, but returned empty handed. Also, there was no CCTV camera in the vicinity, which could have helped in the case,” he added.

“There were several similar recoveries of explosives. During the probe, we checked with the concerned investigating officers (IOs) to establish a link, but there was no success. The case stands closed as untraced,” the SP said.

The hand grenades with an “86P 01-03 632” marking were found in a plastic pipe container and packed with thermocol and tape in boxes on May 17 in the fields of Sauntli village, almost 25 kilometers away from Ambala district headquarters.

Three were blue in color, while one was gray and all were packed with thermocol in a manner that they were dropped from a height, it was learnt.

A case was registered under sections of the Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

During a search operation in the area, the cops also found a plastic pipe box with lids on both sides fifty metres away from the road and an old sack with a firm name from Madhya Pradesh’s Pithampur with some powder-like substance.

Later, teams from central agencies like National Investigation Agency (NIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and National Security Guards (NSG) also visited the site.

A week later, Haryana home minister Anil Vij chaired a coordination meeting of various high-level central and state security agencies in Ambala, in view of the recent explosive recoveries in the state.

On March 20, 2022, the police had seized three live hand grenades and an improvised explosive device (IED) in Sadoupur village near Maharishi Markandeshwar University (MMU), adjacent to Chandigarh-Hisar national highway (NH-152).

In the case, three men- Gurpreet alias Gopi, Akashdeep alias Akash and Amandeep, had reportedly disclosed to the police to have worked for their handler Harvinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, a Pakistan-based gangster-turned-terrorist, who tasked them to drop the explosives received through drones, in exchange of money.

Gopi, an alleged mastermind, his brother Amandeep and two others were arrested with heavy explosives in an SUV by Karnal Police in May last year and were later brought to Ambala in connection with the case.