NIA charges Pakistan gangster among 2 in grenade attack on YouTuber Roger Sandhu

New Delhi, April 2 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed charges against two accused, including Pakistani gangster Shehzad Bhatti, in connection with last year’s grenade attack at YouTuber Roger Sandhu’s house in Jalandhar, Punjab, an official said on Thursday.

The NIA, which took over the case from the Punjab Police in December 2025, has named Shehzad as an absconder in the supplementary chargesheet filed before a special court.

A total of 10 accused have so far been arrested in the case, while seven others, including Shehzad, whose current whereabouts are not known, are absconding.

The second accused named in the chargesheet is Dipander Pratap Singh @ Deepan Rana, who has been arrested in RC-22/2025/NIA/DLI. Both men have been charged under various provisions of the UA (P) Act, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act, and BNS 2023, the NIA said.

The Punjab Police, which had initially registered a case in March last year, had earlier charge sheeted nine persons based on its investigation.

The grenade attack on Sandhu’s house in Raipur Rasoolpur village in Jalandhar district was carried out in the early hours of March 16, 2025.

Investigation by the NIA revealed that Shehzad had orchestrated the attack from abroad as part of a wider terror conspiracy involving a large network of terror modules engaged in targeted killings, recruitment and smuggling of arms and ammunition into India.

Shehzad had used encrypted communication to direct the various players involved in the attack, the NIA has further found.

Dipander had acted as a key local facilitator to the gangster and provided logistical support to the assailants. He was also involved in handling illegal arms and explosives, as per NIA’s findings.

The NIA said it is continuing its probe to track the absconding accused and to uncover and destroy other terror modules linked to the larger conspiracy behind the attack.

–IANS

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