NIA conducts searches in Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi to probe 2024 Neemrana hotel firing case

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has conducted extensive searches at 10 locations in Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi to probe the conspiracy behind the 2024 Neemrana hotel firing attack linked with Canada-based Khalistani terrorist Arsh Dalla, an official statement issued on Monday said. The attack, in which 35 shots were fired on September 8, last year all around the premises of Hotel Highway King in Neemrana, Rajasthan, was aimed at terrorising and threatening people, it said. "The two attackers were subsequently identified as members of the Bambiah gang, having connections with Dalla’s terrorist-gangster network. "They had used prohibited weapons and also threatened the hotel’s owner and manager for extortion money. The manager had also earlier received several threat calls from international numbers," said the statement issued by the NIA. The NIA, which had taken over the case in December, seized several electronic devices and other "incriminating" materials during the searches conducted at the premises of accused and suspects engaged in promoting violent criminal activities on Saturday, it said. These "accused/suspects had been involved in providing financial support and in carrying out acts of violence and terror at the behest of designated individual terrorist Arsh Dalla and his associate Dinesh Gandhi", according to NIA's investigations.

Dalla’s associates have been engaged in extortion through such terror and violent acts to raise funds for banned Khalistani terrorist outfits, the agency has alleged. Businessmen and other targets were identified by these gangsters and their aides who would threaten and coerce the targets into paying off huge sums, the probe agency said. Investigations in the case are continuing as part of the NIA’s all-out efforts to identify and dismantle terrorist and gangster syndicates active in the country, it added. Arsh Dalla is a proclaimed offender in over 50 cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion and terrorist acts, including terror financing. In May 2022, a Red Corner Notice was issued against him. He was designated as a terrorist in 2023 by India, according to officials.