In a major breakthrough, Punjab Police have arrested six persons from Dehradun’s Peliyon Police Chowki area in connection with Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala’s murder. According to the police, they were returning to Punjab from Hemkund Sahib in a vehicle, which was intercepted by the Uttarakhand STF and local police following a tip-off. Moosewala was murdered a day before on May 29, after his security was scaled down by the police. The police had not only scaled down the security of 424 persons, including Moosewala’s, but also made the list public.
All six detained persons are being questioned. State police authorities have also sought help from their Delhi Police counterparts, who are questioning jailed gangsters including Bishnoi, Kala Jathedi and Kala Rana. The investigations may finally reveal the conspiracy behind the killing.
The gruesome murder has not only shocked Moosewala’s millions of fans but also has put the Punjab government in tight spot, with opposition leaders demanding resignation from Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann. The police have formed an SIT to probe the murder, even as the government has set the ball rolling for a judicial inquest into it.
In a related development, interrogation of an accused arrested in connection with Moosewala’s murder has led to some significant revelations, sources in Punjab Police say. It suggests that the conspiracy was hatched in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. According to sources, Shahrukh Khan, an inmate of Tihar Jail,
was given the task of killing Sidhu Moosewala on behalf of gangsters Brar and Bishnoi. Shahrukh used to make calls to Brar through Signal App. He had tried to kill Moosewala before but could not do so owing to his security. In his interrogation, Shahrukh has revealed names of eight persons who helped in the murder. Among those named by Shahrukh is the manager of Mankirat Aulakh, another Punjabi singer.
The gruesome murder has led to several theories. The most credible one is that Moosewala was killed by gangster Goldy Brar, a close aide of Lawrence Bishnoi. Giving credulity to this theory is none other than Brar himself. In a Facebook post the day Moosewala was gunned down, the Canada-based gangster claimed responsibility for what he said to be a revenge killing.
If Brar is to be believed, Moosewala had a hand in the murder of Youth Akali Dal leader Vikramjit Singh Middukhera alias Vicky Middukhera, who was gunned down in Mohali last year by gangsters Amit Dagar and Bhuppi Rana.
Another name that has figured in the controversy is Shaganpreet Singh, the manager of Sidhu Moosewala. He is wanted by the Punjab Police in connection with the killing of Middukhera but is said to have escaped to Australia. Claiming Moosewala’s involvement in Middhukhera’s murder, Brar says he avenged the murder by killing Moosewala.
Moosewala’s murder has put the spotlight on Punjab’s growing gangster culture and on the nexus between gangsters–singers and politicians. Many gangsters have emerged in the state, becoming a serious challenge to the law and order situation there. Stories about gangsters and their fetishes abound. If there is a gangster who could kill someone barely with his teeth, there is another who does the Bhangra on the dead body after committing a murder.
Both Brar and his comrade-in-crime Bishnoi are not new to the crime world of the state. Bishnoi is one of the most wanted criminals in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Bishnoi has many cases registered against him including murder and dacoity. He entered the world of crime through student politics in Chandigarh. Recently, Bishnoi came in limelight for threatening to kill Bollywood superstar Salman Khan.
Bishnoi’s protégé Satinder Singh alias Goldy Brar became notorious after he murdered then District Youth Congress President Gurlal Singh Pehalwan some years back. He now runs his murderous business from Canada and is wanted by Indian authorities in several criminal cases. Earlier this month, a court in Faridpur issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Brar.
According to reports, Punjab Police Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) arrested Bishnoi and three close associates of Canada-based gangster from Bathinda on May 1, 2022.
It was sheer coincidence that Moosewala had dedicated his latest song ‘The Last Ride’ to rapper Tupac Shakur. He had never imagined that he would meet the same fate as the singer he was idolizing through his song. Shakur was found shot dead in his car at the age of 25 in 1996. The prophetic words, “Ho chobbar de chehre utte noor dassda, ni ehda uthuga jawani ch janaja mithiye (Like the glow on the face of a hero, darling shall I leave the world like a king), will haunt his fans for a long time to come.
