Punjab Police on Wednesday killed two accused in Sidhu Moosewala murder case, Jagroop Singh Roopa and Manpreet Singh alias Mannu Kusa, near Attari after a fierce encounter that began around noon and lasted more than 3 hours. Three policemen were also injured in the encounter which took place in Bhakna village, 20 km from Amritsar.
Roopa and Mannu Kusa were allegedly involved in the murder of Punjabi pop singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu alias Siddu Moosewala, who was gunned down on 29 June in Mansa village. Roopa and Mannu Kusa were on the run for 52 days. According to sources, they were in Attari and were planning to escape to Pakistan. Hot on their trail, the police got a breakthrough after they interrogated a person accused of gold theft in Mohali, who used to work with Mannu Kusa. It was Mannu Kusa who allegedly fired first shots at Moosewala with an AK-47. Police have identified six attackers who were part of two modules involved in the murder.
With this tip-off on their whereabouts, and with help from technical surveillance, the police came to know that Roopa and Mannu Kusa were holed in Bhakna village near Attari. A massive police force reached the village and cordoned off the house they were holed up in. A fierce gun battle between the gangsters and the police force ensued, which last more than 3 hours. According to sources, Roopa was killed first and Mannu Kusa continued to fire for about an hour before he was killed around 4 p.m.
The encounter also left three policemen injured, while a news channel’s cameraperson got a bullet injury in his right leg in the crossfire. “An AK-47 rifle, a pistol and a large number of bullets have been found,” ADGP Pramod Ban, who heads
Punjab Police›s Anti-Gangster Task Force, told reporters at the encounter site. State police chief Gaurav Yadav also reached the site by the end of the encounter.
Roopa and Mannu Kusa were among three shooters who were still on the run. While these two were tracked down, Deepak Mundi has not been traced yet. The rest among at least eight shooters have been arrested.
The Delhi Police Special Cell had earlier arrested three shooters, Priyavrata Fauji, Kashish and Ankit Sirsa. Roopa and Mannu Kusa were part of the second module.
Sources said that both the shooters were drug addicts and could not survive even a day without drugs. The police also knew that they could not stay outside Punjab for long without drugs and kept an eye on their movement. Roopa and Mannu Kusa belonged to villages in Tarn Taran in the same border belt where the encounter took place.
