LUCKNOW: Shankar Lal Dussad, arrested alongside along with his two aides whereas doing ‘recce’ in Ayodhya initially tried to mislead the cops by posing as a follower of Lord Ram.

The person allegedly having Khalistan hyperlinks had put in a saffron flag on his SUV, mentioned ATS officers.

Dussad and his two aides, Ajit Kumar Sharma and Pradeep Puniya, have been intercepted on Wednesday night time.

ATS inspector Gyanendra Pratap Singh, whereas narrating the sequence of occasions in an FIR registered in opposition to the trio on the ATS police station in Lucknow, mentioned, “Throughout interrogation, he reiterated that he got here for darshan of Ram Lalla as he’s a giant follower of Shri Ram. Dussad was dropped at UP ATS headquarters in Lucknow on Thursday morning and interrogated within the afternoon. However he saved repeating the identical factor.”

He mentioned FIR in opposition to was registered below Indian Penal Code sections 121-A (conspiracy to commit offence), 419 (dishonest by personation), 420 (dishonest and dishonestly inducing something), 467 (forgery of priceless safety), 468 (forgery for function of dishonest), 471 (utilizing as real a cast doc) and 120-B (felony conspiracy).

The official mentioned Dussad confessed to his tainted background in addition to his hyperlinks with Canada-based Khalistani terrorist Gurupatwant Singh Pannu by way of different Canada-based arms smugglers Lakhwinder Singh Landa and Sukhwinder Singh Sukkha.

He mentioned Dussad was in common contact with Landa and others by way of chat functions and web calls to take orders from them.

ATS officers mentioned that Dussad was launched on bail from Central Jail, Bikaner on Might 15, 2023, after spending over seven years since March 21, 2016.

They mentioned Dussad cast hyperlinks with Khalistani teams whereas staying in Bikaner jail when he met a prisoner Lakhbinder Singh who requested him to satisfy his nephew Pumma by way of whom he got here in contact with Canada-based Khalistani chief Sukhbinder Singh Sukkha.