Amritsar police on Monday brought in a gangster, Lawrence Bishnoi, a key suspect in the murder of musician Sidhu Moose Wala, in custody for questioning over the murder of Ran Kandiralia, a notorious gangster, who was shot dead in a private hospital. At Amritsar last year.
Bishnoi, who will be detained at the interrogation center, is likely to appear in a local court to face arrest on Tuesday. Amritsar police commissioner Arun Pal Singh said Bishnoi’s name appeared during an investigation into Kandowalia’s murder. “He (Bishnoi) is alleged to be the conspirator,” he said.
Earlier, a Punjab Police (SIT) special investigative team investigating the murder of Moose Wala brought Bishnoi to Mansa from Kharar, where he was being investigated at the CIA office, following the end of his police arrest on Monday. On June 15, Punjab police detained Bishnoi seven days after he was released from New Delhi while under house arrest. The trial was later adjourned until July 27.
When the court sent Bishnoi to a 14-day jail term in connection with the murder of Moose Wala, he was arrested by police at the Amritsar commission after he went to court to remain in custody in the Kandowalia murder case. Gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, a friend of the Bishnoi gang in the Majha district of Punjab, is also a key defendant in the case.
Kandowalia, who faces 15 criminal charges, died a day after she was shot dead by four unidentified men at a private hospital where she was to inquire about her cousin’s health on August 3 last year.
Later, a text from the Facebook account of the arrested Bhagwanpuria gang accused of murder called it revenge for Kandowalia’s support of criminals Vicky Gounder and Devinder Bambiha in the past. A key figure in the 2016 Patti gang war that left Bhagwanpuria assistant Dilbag Singh, identified as Lama Patti, dead, Kandowalia presented himself before a special team in February 2017.
In addition to Bhagwanpuria, four assailants, identified as Money Rayya, Mandeep Singh Toofan, Happy Shah, and a Haryana man, were charged with murdering Kandowalia. Shah told police that a plot to kill him was hatched by Bhagwanpuria and Goldy Brar, who is also a key figure in the assassination of Moose Wala. At the time of Kandowalia’s death, Bhagwanpuria was in Delhi prison in Tihar, where Bishnoi was detained, a police official said on condition of anonymity.
