The accused, former cop Gagandeep Singh, carried the explosives inside the court complex is among the findings of the initial probe, Punjab DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyay said.
Two days after a bomb exploded inside a district court complex in Punjab's Ludhiana, state police chief Siddharth Chattopadhyay on Saturday concluded a preliminary inquiry into the case.
Addressing a press conference, the Director General of Police (DGP) said that preliminary investigation has confirmed that sacked former police officer Gagandeep Singh, who was suspected to be the attacker, did indeed carry explosives inside the court premises.
“Gagandeep probably met some people, including Khalistani elements and drug smugglers, during his stay in jail. He had very good technical skills and initial interrogation shows that he went inside the washroom to collect the bombs,” Chattopadhyay said.
He also said, "We have strong clues that Pakistan-based, pro-Khalistan narco-terrorists are behind the blast."
Singh, who was killed in Thursday's blast that resulted in injuring six others, was dismissed from service in 2019 in a drugs case and spent two years in jail. He was released in September this year. The blast took place near the washroom on the second floor of the court complex.
The police chief also said that Singh's possible motive was to create fear as the trial in his drugs case was to be held the next day.
The blast on December 23 comes at a time when Punjab is preparing for the assembly elections, which are likely to be held in February-March. It also came in the backdrop of last week's twin lynchings in the border state, over alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and a Sikh flag at Amritsar's Golden Temple and Kapurthala respectively.
Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday said that there was no evidence of any sacrilege in the Kapurthala incident. The caretaker of the Gurdwara where the murder took place has been arrested on charges of murder.