Ludhiana court blast: Recovered body identified; deceased was suspended police constable

In a massive development in the Ludhiana court blast, Republic on Friday learnt that the body of the suspect has been identified. As per sources, it is of one Gagandeep Singh. Though Singh's face and body were disfigured, his family gave confirmation that the body was his. 

A resident of GTB Nagar Khanna, Singh was a police personnel posted as munshi at Sadar Khanna PS. Singh was dismissed from service after a case was registered against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. He was put in jail in relation to the case in 2019 and was only released in the month of September 2021, sources informed. 

'Suicide angle not being ruled out': Ludhiana Commissioner of Police

Earlier in the day, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Gurpreet Bhullar confirmed that the angle of suicide bombing was not being ruled out in the blast that claimed two lives and injured six others. 

"Yesterday at 12:22, we received a call that there was an explosion on the second floor of the judicial complex. It was a public toilet for men, and adjacent to that was the old record room. We immediately rushed there and cordoned off the area. When we saw the scene of the crime, my team and I could make out that probably the person who was handling it had been blown off. Seems like the bomb exploded when the person was trying to assemble it," the Ludhiana police commissioner said, narrating the sequence of events.

Gurpreet Bhullar added, "That was what came out of the preliminary investigation, and it has been endorsed by the teams, including the forensic team."

High-level internal security meet at MHA

Meanwhile, a high-level meeting was held on the blast. Chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, the meeting had in attendance Intelligence Bureau Director Arvind Kumar, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) Chief Kuldeep Singh and Border Security Force (BSF) Director General Pankaj Singh. 

The Union Home Ministry has sought a detailed report from the Punjab government regarding the incident.