San Francisco Indian Consulate attack case: NIA raids 14 places in Punjab, Haryana

The locations raided by the NIA were spread across the districts of Moga, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Mohali and Patiala in Punjab, and Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar in Haryana.

The crackdown led to the seizure of digital data containing information related to the accused persons, along with other incriminating documents.

The move was a bid to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the March 19, 2023 and July 2, 2023 attacks involving criminal trespass, vandalism, damage to public property and attempts to cause hurt to the officials of Indian Consulate in San Francisco and set the Consulate building on fire through acts of arson. The NIA has been probing the case with the aim of identifying and prosecuting the attackers and the assailants of the attacks and sending a strong message to such anti-Indian elements.

A team of the NIA had visited San Francisco in August 2023 to investigate the incidents of attacks on the Consulate through violent acts of arson and vandalism leading to fear among the Consulate staff and the community.

As part of its investigations, the NIA said that it has crowd-sourced information to identify and collect information about US-based entities and individuals involved in these violent incidents.

The agency has already identified certain individuals who were part of the conspiracy behind the repeated attacks. These include the attackers and many of their associates, who are both Indian and foreign nationals.

The Consulate General of India in San Francisco was attacked on March 19 by a group of assailants who committed criminal trespass, damaged public property, and attacked officials of the Consulate.

Prior to this attack, on the same day, some attackers attempted to set the Consulate building on fire by sprinkling inflammable substances early in the morning. Subsequently on July 2 at midnight, a few persons attempted to set the Consulate building on fire. (ANI)