New Delhi, June 01:
A day after the cremation of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala, whose killing shocked the music fraternity and fans alike, chilling details of the plot to murder him have emerged. The singer was travelling in his Mahindra Thar SUV to visit his ailing aunt in the Barnala district when he was gunned down in broad daylight.
His friends Gurvinder Singh, who sat in the rear seat, and Gurpreet Singh, who sat next to him in the front seat, were his co-passengers. The former has revealed how it all went down.
He said since five people were difficult to accommodate in a Thar jeep, he didn’t travel with his pared-down security detail. The moment Sidhu Moose Wala reached his aunt’s village, a shot was fired from behind the vehicle and another vehicle blocked his jeep from the front.
A man carrying an automatic assault rifle appeared in front of the jeep and started firing indiscriminately, he said. The 28-year-old singer also fired two rounds from his pistol, which was later recovered from his jeep, but it was no match for the sophisticated assault rifles.
Gurvinder Singh said that shooters joined in from three sides and firing continued. Sidhu Moose Wala tried to escape in his jeep but couldn’t, he added.
Sidhu Moose Wala was shot over 30 times by around eight to 10 attackers, police sources had earlier said. Even after firing that many shots, the attackers checked whether he was alive, they said.
Bullets found at the spot of the killing in Punjab’s Mansa district indicate that AN 94 Russian assault rifle was also used in the attack. The police have also found a pistol.
Punjab police have registered an FIR under the charges of murder and Arms Act after a complaint from the singer’s father Balkaur Singh, who also claims to be an eyewitness.
“On Sunday, my son left with his friends Gurwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh in a Thar car. He did not take the bulletproof Fortuner and the two guards with him. I followed him in another car with the two armed personnel,” Mr Singh has said in his complaint.
An SUV and a sedan were waiting on the road; each had four armed men inside, the complaint says. The men sprayed bullets at the car Moose Wala was in, it adds.
“Within minutes, the cars sped away. I started shouting and people gathered. I rushed my son and his friends to the hospital where he died,” the complaint says.
The complaint by the 28-year-old singer’s father states that several gangsters had threatened him over the phone.
Six suspects have been detained in the case. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has ordered an investigation into why the popular rapper-singer’s security was pared down. He was on the list of 424 people whose security cover was withdrawn by the Punjab police two days ago.
Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar claimed responsibility for Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder on Facebook. Goldy Brar is a close aide of gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi, a former Delhi University student leader who is the main suspect in the singer’s murder and is in Tihar jail in a different case. Lawrence Bishnoi’s lawyer denied his involvement and questioned: “How can such a huge murder conspiracy be planned from jail?”
(Courtesy NDTV)
