Baitha hai, sir, baitha hai!’(‘‘‘He is sitting there, Sir, he is there!’’’)( The Netting of Punjab CM’s assassin) continues....

We found a tall turbaned Sikh youngster sprawled leisurely in an executive-chair. Alongside sat another person, a ‘mona’ (Sikh without a turban), equally relaxed. They were caught totally unawares and we over-powered them in no time. The man in the turban, when questioned, admitted that he was indeed Jagtar Singh Tara. His body search revealed a cyanide pill hidden in his turban but, fortunately, there was no weapon on either of them.

Having realized that his game was up, Jagtar Singh Tara and his companion offered no resistance. They said they they would come with us willingly. We brought the two of them to our vehicles and drove them to the STF office located in Yashwant Place, Chanakya Puri. It was still not dark and quite a few bystanders saw us taking the two young men away. Later, we came to know of a call received at the Delhi Police Control Room reporting abduction of two youngsters by unidentified persons. Funnily enough, en route to our office, the official Ambassador Car carrying Tara and four of us developed a snag and stopped.

It took some time for the vehicle to be fixed before we were on our way again. Imagine us, four so- called CBI sleuths, stranded in the middle of a busy South Delhi road, in a ramshackle car, with a Babbar Khalsa terrorist, the first to be arrested in the Sardar Beant Singh assassination case! Luckily, we were soon in the safe confines of our office. Director Rao and Special Director Bhagat arrived on hearing the news of the arrest in no time and complimented us handsomely.
A brief interrogation of Jagtar Singh Tara disclosed that his accomplice Jagtar Singh Hawara and he had bought a silver-grey Ambassador car DBA 9598 from the Paschim Vihar area of Delhi.

To be continued…