60 gangsters, worldwide web of informers and gang rivalry is what it took to plan and execute Sidhu Moosewala's killing, shows police finding

Jupinderjit Singh

Chandigarh, July 13

It took a worldwide web of nearly 60 gangsters and supporters to target Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala on May 29 evening, some 8 km away from his palatial house in Mansa. While the state is still processing the brazenness of the crime, investigations by the Delhi and the Punjab Police point out that Moosewala’s murder was the “consequence of inter-gang rivalry”, though he himself was not involved in any criminal activity.

Nearly 400 personnel of the Delhi Police’s special operation cell (led by Special Commissioner HGS Dhaliwal), at least 200 of the Punjab Police, besides hundreds of those indirectly involved in Mansa and Bathinda districts, worked for weeks to get to the bottom of the case.

Data of lakhs of phones picked up from dump, pug marks of shooters on the internet and CCTV coverage spread in several states were gathered and analysed to narrow down the list of suspects. But the pursuit appears far from over as three of the six shooters are still at large. The weapons used in the crime have not been recovered either. The shooters are learnt to have handed over the weapons to an accomplice in Bhiwani (Haryana), who too is untraceable. Piecing together the police investigation and confessions of the accused on social media, Punjab and Delhi cops claim that jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was the mastermind and he allegedly gave the “kill order”. Wanted gangsters Goldy Brar, Sachin Bishnoi and Anmol Bihsnoi too were part of the planning, the police say. Their network in at least 10 jails of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi was involved. Gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria allegedly contributed two shooters and logistic support.

On why Moosewala was killed, Brar says it was done to “uphold their gang’s prestige”. “Moosewala challenged and provoked us several times. We let him off initially following the intervention of Harvinder Rinda (gangster-turned-terrorist). But something had to be done after Vicky Middukhera’s murder,” he says.

Lawrence Bishnoi ruled out it to be a ‘supari’ killing. “No money was paid. Moosewala provoked us through his lyrics and eulogised the rival Bambiha gang. He dared us to attack him in the open. It was a murder for prestige,” he is learnt to have told the police.