The NIA logo.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency will probe the targeted killing of Punjab Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Vikas Bagga, a senior official said on Thursday.
The development comes following a directive from the Union home ministry in this regard, he said.
"The NIA has taken over the investigation (by re-registering the Punjab Police's case) to probe the murder of Vikas Bagga," the official said.
Sources said the probe agency has been roped in to unravel the larger conspiracy behind Bagga's killing to spread terror in the region.
They said the involvement of banned terrorist outfits and their operatives based in India and abroad in the crime is also not being ruled out.
Bagga, who was also known as Vikas Prabhakar, was the president of the Nangal unit of the VHP.
He was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle-borne men at his shop in Nangal town in Punjab's Rupnagar district on April 13.
The two assailants entered Bagga's confectionery shop located near the Rupnagar railway station and opened fire at him. They fled, local police had said.