Jalandhar grenade attack: Army jawan posted in J&K held for imparting online training to accused

Chandigarh, Apr 17: A soldier, posted in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri, has been arrested for allegedly training, on social media, the main accused in the grenade attack on the residence of a Jalandhar-based YouTuber last month, Punjab Police said on Thursday.

The accused, Sepoy Sukhcharan Singh, 30, a resident of Punjab’s Muktsar, was recruited into the Army in 2015 and was posted with 163 Infantry Brigade in Rajouri.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Jalandhar-Rural, Harvinder Singh Virk, said Sukhcharan Singh’s name came out during the interrogation of the main accused, Hardik Kamboj, who hurled the grenade at YouTuber Rozer Sandhu’s residence.

However, no one was injured as the grenade did not explode.

Nine people have been arrested in this incident.

Sukhcharan Singh has also been found involved in the case, and a court has sent him to five days police custody, Virk told the media in Jalandhar.

He said the main accused and the sepoy came in contact with each other through social media. He said the sepoy had provided training on removing the grenade pin via video calls.

As per investigations, they became friends on Instagram. He is alleged to have imparted online training with a dummy grenade and then showed how to use an actual grenade. An object resembling a grenade was thrown at the residence of Sandhu, in Maqsudan, Jalandhar, on March 16, but fortunately, it did not cause any damage.

A Pakistani gangster had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Soon after the attack incident, two videos emerged on social media, including one of Pakistani gangster Shahzad Bhatti claiming that he ordered the attack on the YouTuber for allegedly using derogatory language against the Muslim community.

The prime accused, Kamboj, 18, was arrested from Haryana's Yamunanagar district. After the crime, Deputy Inspector General of Police Naveen Singla said the metal-like object thrown at Sandhu’s house was an Arges-type grenade, a conventional hand grenade. Kamboj has already confessed to throwing a grenade at Sandhu’s house and being in contact with Bhatti. He was given Rs 25,000 for throwing the grenade, said the police.