Additional district and sessions judge RS Hundal on Wednesday acquitted Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo in connection with a 2010 case registered under the Explosives Act against him at Nabha.
He will, however, remain in jail as trial in many other cases, including Nabha jailbreak, is going on against him. Mintoo was produced before the judge through video- conferencing.
The case fell flat after the police failed to provide any evidence against Mintoo, who was accused of funding explosives including weapons and detonators that were found from two persons Jasbir Singh and Gurjant Singh, after their car rammed into a police checkpost in Nabha on February 21, 2010.
Earlier, he was acquitted in the Nabha bottling plant explosion case. As per sources, at least 10 other cases have been registered against him across police stations in Punjab. Mintoo was one of the main accused in the Nabha jailbreak wherein six dreaded criminals escaped from the highsecurity jail on November 27 last year.
He was arrested on November 28 from a railway station in New Delhi. Harminder Singh Mintoo was arrested by Punjab police from Delhi's IGI airport in November 2014. He was arrested while he was on his way back from Thailand.
He is wanted in 10 terror-related cases, including the 2008 attack on Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and 2010 recovery of explosives at Halwara Air Force station.
The 47-year-old, who had defected from Wadhawa Singh-led Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) to take over its splinter outfit KLF in 2009, is one of the biggest catches by the Punjab cops after the arrest of BKI de facto chief Ratandeep Singh in September.