New Delhi/Chandigarh, June 8: Delhi police today caught the mastermind behind the blasts that ripped through two cinemas last month, but the arrest was overshadowed by the simultaneous capture of the man involved in the 1995 assassination of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

Jagtar Singh Hawara, the India chief of the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa International, had tunnelled his way out of a Chandigarh jail last year along with two others.

“Jagtar Singh Hawara is the head of Babbar Khalsa and there was a price of Rs 500,000 for his arrest. He is wanted for the assassination of Beant Singh among other cases,” a police spokesperson said.

Singh was killed on August 31, 1995 by a bomb planted in his chauffeur-driven car.

Police sources said Hawara, Jaspal Singh, who assembled the bombs in the washrooms of the cinemas, and Vikas Sehgal, the third person arrested today, were planning to assassinate some Delhi leaders accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. They had also planned to kill former Punjab police chief K.P.S. Gill, the sources added.

“This is one of the biggest arrests made by Delhi police in recent times,” said Delhi police commissioner K.K. Paul. “Hawara was masterminding the entire operation and had been warned not to expose himself. However, he had come to take money from hawala dealers.”

The three had come to Delhi from Chandigarh and were planning to escape to Nepal, Paul said.

The blasts at the halls screening Jo Bole So Nihaal, considered offensive by some Sikhs, were an attempt to revive militancy, the officer added. One person was killed in the explosions and dozens were injured.

Local dailies in Patiala, however, reported that Hawara, Jaspal and Vikas were caught just outside Punjabi University yesterday, though Patiala SSP A.S. Rai said he had “no information other than that something has happened and some people have been caught”.

“I am not aware of the arrests in Patiala,” he added.

But an officer at the Punjab police headquarters in Chandigarh said Hawara was caught along with the others yesterday from near the Punjabi University gate. Some guns, a huge amount of explosives and remote-control devices were seized from them while three accomplices managed to escape.

“We don’t know whether they are terrorists but the number of police personnel who went after them indicates they were very wanted,” a student of the university said.

Police sources said Hawara’s role in the blasts is being probed.