Chandigarh: Gangster-turned-Khalistani terrorist Harvinder Sandhu alias Rinda, 34, died in a Pakistan military hospital in Lahore today evening due to a drug overdose.
He was a member of the banned Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terror group and was being used by Pakistan’s notorious ISI agency to carry out terrorist acts in India.
A Punjab police intelligence officer revealed that Rinda was addicted to heroin (Chitta) and he could have died due to an overdose of ‘Chitta.’
Rinda died due to a drug overdose while under treatment for a serious kidney disorder, according to social media reports.
Rinda was being used by the ISI to carry out terrorist acts in India and push drugs to weaken the youth in Punjab. He was believed to be supplying arms and drugs to his accomplices in Punjab with the help of drones.
India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) had announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for information on Rinda who is the mastermind of at least a dozen terror cases, including the rocket propelled grenade attack on Punjab Police headquarters in Mohali this year.
Besides, he was also believed to be behind the blast in the Nawanshahr Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) building on November 8 last year.
Rinda was also wanted by the Chandigarh Police in four cases – murder, attempt to murder, and under the Arms Act.
He had been declared a proclaimed offender in court and had escaped to Pakistan via Nepal on a fake passport.
Rinda is originally from Rattoke village in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab. At the age of 11, he went to live with his family in Nanded Sahib in Maharashtra. According to police records, Rinda killed one of his relatives in Tarn Taran at the age of just 18 due to a family dispute.
At Nanded Sahib, he started extortion from local traders and killed at least two people. Two FIRs were registered against him at Wazirabad and Vimantal police stations.
He had escaped to Pakistan via Nepal on a fake passport.
Pakistani media did not report the news of Rinda’s death, but a Facebook page of another gangster Jaspreet Singh Jassi claimed that Davinder Bambiha’s gang members killed him in Pakistan. No details were given as to how and in what manner he was killed.
Jassi alleged that Rinda was involved in the murder of Sidhu Moosewala as he supplied modern weapons to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. “We had made him settle safely in Pakistan but he started dabbling with our enemies and harmed our group,” Jassi said about Rinda in his post.
He warned others of the Bishnoi gang to be ready for the same fate, even if they were hiding in different countries.
