He will be produced before the court on Saturday. In a major development, the Ludhiana Police recovered a .32 bore countrymade pistol and a live bullet from the house of Rachhpal Singh of Fatehgarh Churian, Gurdaspur, one of the key accused in an espionage case. He has been charged for sending live CCTVs footage of the local area to Pakistan based handlers.
Akashdeep had introduced Rachhpal to Pakistan based handlers. However the police suspected that he procured the weapon to execute some criminal activity. Police alleged that he had rented a shop on Ferozepur Road near Old Octroi Post and installed CCTV cameras outside the premises in such a manner that they provided surveillance of the surrounding area. Police suspected that the feed was being used to monitor movements and activities in Ludhiana district and gather information of potential security significance. Later police arrested two more aides including Rohit Masih and Varinder Masih, who had turned up at the shop to find out why the CCTV cameras had stopped transmitting live footage to their Pakistan-based handlers.
Rachhpal was arrested in a joint operation by the Ludhiana commissionerate of police and counter intelligence Ludhiana on August 27 following a tip-off. Following his interrogation the police booked his 21-year-old distant relative Akashdeep Singh, who was already lodged in Amritsar jail for drug peddling.
The accused told police that he had procured a countrymade illegal weapon through his cross borders contacts. During the interrogation the accused told police that he procured the weapon for selling it further to some local gangs in order to make some easy money. Commissioner of police Swapan Sharma said that Rachhpal has disclosed some more names involved in the espionage network and police is verifying their roles. The accused shared the cameras’ access credentials with Pakistan-based handlers, giving them the ability to view the footage remotely through a live stream, according to the police.
His three aides, Rohit Masih, Varinder Masih of Village Jassar, Gurdaspur and Akashdeep Singh of Village Malakpur , Ajnala, were produced before the court on Friday and were ordered to be sent to jail on judicial remand.
