Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann Meets Sidhu Moose Wala’s Family: ‘Won’t Spare Culprits’

*Paromita Das
Locals protested as Chief Minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann met the family of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in the Moosa village of Punjab’s Mansa district on Friday, 3 June.

Unidentified assailants murdered Moose Wala on May 29.

Mann promised justice and said the “culprits will be caught soon” in a conversation with Moose Wala’s father, Balkaur Singh.

In the Moosa village of Punjab’s Mansa district, CM Bhagwant Mann met the family of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.

Mann’s visit follows a meeting between Punjab Minister Harpal Cheema and Moose Wala’s father on Thursday.

Protests in the Run-Up to Bhagwant Mann’s Visit

Several residents of Moosa village protested Mann’s planned visit to the family earlier in the day. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has come under fire for failing to apprehend the attackers even days after the killing.

The residents also claimed that the police were preventing them from entering Moosa village by deploying heavy security.

“Our vehicles are being prevented from entering the village. Vehicles belonging to our relatives are not permitted to enter “a protester stated Protesters had also chanted anti-state government slogans.

However, the police denied the allegations.

AAP MLA Gurpreet Singh faced protests ahead of Mann’s visit, forcing him to return.

Central Investigation into Family Demands

Moose Wala’s family wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday, pleading with him to order a central agency investigation into his death; Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said after meeting his father.

On Tuesday, the singer was cremated in front of thousands of fans and supporters.

Just a day before his murder, the AAP government in Punjab was under fire for reducing the security of over 400 VVIPs, including Moose Wala’s.

The Punjab government announced on Thursday that it would restore security by 7 June, as ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to do so.

Murder of Sidhu Moose Wala: Punjab’s Gang Wars Have a Bigger Picture

The primary theory on which the Punjab Police appear to be working in the murder of internationally renowned Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.

Is that he was murdered as a result of a feud between two gangs in Punjab?

Sidhu Moose Wala ‘s death is thought to be part of a series of killings between the two gangs that began with the death of Sarpanch Ravi Khwajke in 2016 and included the murders of Lavi Deora in 2017, Gurlal Brar in 2020, Gurlal Pehlwan and Vicky Middukhera in 2021, and Sandeep Nangal Ambiya in 2022.
Given its knowledge of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and the fact that the leader is currently in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in connection with an MCOCA case handled by it, the Delhi Police Special Cell has put forth its explanation for how the murder was carried out.

Two issues arise:

Was the murder solely the result of a feud between the Bishnoi and Bambiha gangs?

Why was Moose Wala targeted despite the fact that, according to the Punjab Police, he had nothing to do with any gang? While we do not question the theory of the Punjab Police or the Delhi Police Special Cell, we believe that in order to understand these two questions, we must look at a broader chronology of gang violence in Punjab.

We will attempt to summarize this chronology by looking briefly at the lives of some of the key gangsters who have operated in Punjab, particularly in the western Malwa districts of Ferozepur, Fazilka, Faridkot, Sri Muktsar Sahib, and Bathinda.

We begin the story with a reference to Punjab’s first major gangster, Dimpy Chandbhan, in Sidhu Moose Wala’s song “Malwa Block.”

Dimpy Chandbhan

Prabhjinder Singh Dimpy of Faridkot district’s Chandbhan village – aka Dimpy Chandbhan – is said to have started the story of organized gangs in Punjab. His name had come up in connection with the 1985 murder of a Panjab University student leader named Makhan Singh, but he had not been convicted.

Chandbhan was a student leader who allegedly had close ties to Simranjeet Singh Mann’s Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Mann’s party fared well in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, emerging as a major force in Punjab politics.

However, Mann’s party’s rise was hampered by the subsequent suspension of elections in Punjab and a brutal police crackdown.
Chandbhan’s political career was also cut short, forcing him to flee the state and seek refuge in Uttar Pradesh, where he met figures such as Mukhtar Ansari.

He was arrested in Karnataka for planning the kidnapping of a diamond trader after being charged with extortion and kidnapping in Uttar Pradesh.

He was taken to Delhi and then Haryana, but he escaped police custody, only to be apprehended again a few years later in another case.

When Dimpy Chandbhan was finally released from Bathinda Jail in 2004, it was reported that over 500 vehicles gathered to greet him.
In 2006, he was assassinated near the Lake Club in Chandigarh. Jaswinder Singh Rocky aka Rocky Fazilka, his former aide, was accused of murdering Chandbhan but was later acquitted in court.

Rocky Fazilka

Rocky Fazilka initially collaborated with Dimpy Chandbhan before forming his own gang with Shera Khuban, Jaipal, and Vicky Gounder to commit kidnappings and extortion. With real estate booming in Punjab after 2000 and industries reviving following the end of the conflict, gangsters like Rocky Fazilka benefited.

Rocky, along with Chandbhan, was also imprisoned for plotting the kidnapping of Nirmal Jaipuria in Bengaluru. He is said to have escaped from a Haryana jail with Chandbhan, but the two quickly fell out after their return to Punjab. Rocky dominated Punjab’s organized crime scene following Chandbhan’s death. He later shifted away from criminal activity and into politics, though he retained control over key gangsters such as Lakha Sidhana and Lawrence Bishnoi.
However, he had a falling out with his previous associates, Shera Khubban and Vicky Gounder, who had joined forces with Jaipal Singh, who was charged with highway robbery.

Rocky Fazilka became close to liquor baron Shiv Lal Doda and the Shiromani Akali Dal during this time. Rocky and Doda both gravitated toward politics, making Fazilka and Abohar their respective domains. Rocky was also said to be close to senior Akali leader Sher Singh Ghubaya, a Rai Sikh community leader who is now with the Congress.
Rocky Fazilka had a lot of faith in the gods.

Rocky is said to have assisted with relief efforts in the Fazilka district following the 2011 floods.

Rocky ran as an Independent from Fazilka in the 2012 elections, but was defeated by the BJP’s Surjit Kumar Jyani. Though the SAD was a BJP ally at the time, many of their cadres were said to be supporting Rocky.
The situation became so serious that Sukhbir Badal was forced to threaten those campaigning for Rocky with expulsion. Doda ran for Abohar but was defeated by Sunil Kumar Jakhar, who was then with the Congress.

Rocky later fell out with Doda and ran a campaign against him after his name was mentioned in the murder of a Dalit youth named Bhim Tank.

Rocky Fazilka was killed in a dramatic accident in 2016 at Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh while traveling from Solan to Chandigarh. Vicky Gounder and Jaipal both claimed responsibility for the killing on social media, claiming it was retaliation for the death of Shera Khubban in a police encounter in 2012 after being tipped off by Rocky’s associates.
“Did you just become an MLA?” Gounder made a joke about Rocky Fazilka’s political ambitions on his Facebook page.

Aside from his political career, Rocky Fazilka had a strong belief in gods and used to host many of them in his massive home in Fazilka. Rajdeep Kaur, Rocky’s sister, is carrying on his political legacy.
She first joined the SAD, then the Congress. She is currently a member of Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress party.

Vicky Gounder

Gounder was born Harjinder Singh Bhullar in the village of Sarawan Bodla in the district of Sri Muktsar Sahib. He became a state-level discus thrower, and some say the nickname ‘Gounder’ came from his nickname Vicky, because he spent so much time on the playground.

Gounder was sent to the Government Arts and Sports College in Jalandhar by his father to become a professional athlete, and while there he met criminals Lovely Baba, Prema Lahoriya, and Sukha Kahlwan. Kahlwan murdered Lovely Baba and Gounder in 2010, and Lahoriya vowed vengeance. They assassinated Kahlwan five years later in Phagwara in 2015.
Lahoriya was a former hurdles athlete before turning to crime, which is interesting.

Prema was a key organiser in the Nabha jailbreak in 2016, during which Gounder escaped alongside gangsters Gurpreet Sekhon, Neeta Deol, and Amandeep Dhotian, as well as pro-Khalistan militants Harimder Mintoo and Kashmir Singh Galwandi.

Vicky Gounder was a key figure in the Nabha jailbreak.

The jailbreak elevated Gounder and his associates to the ranks of Punjab’s most wanted gangsters, especially with Jaipal Singh, Gounder’s gang’s leader, going underground soon after the killing of Rocky Fazilka.

In 2018, Gounder and Lahoriya were killed in an ambush near the Punjab-Rajasthan border.
Gurpreet Sekhon Mundki, who is currently in jail, leads their gang.

Ramanjit Romi, who is currently imprisoned in Hong Kong and facing extradition, is another key figure. The police have also charged him with being involved in the targeted killing of two Hindutva leaders in Punjab, as well as acting as a conduit between Punjab gangsters and Pakistan’s ISI.

In his Hong Kong defense, Romi claimed that the allegations were false and that the Indian government was targeting him because he was a “young Sikh supporting the idea of Khalistan.”

Jaipal Singh Bhullar

Jaipal Singh Bhullar, like Gounder and Lahoriya, was the son of a police officer and a national-level hammer thrower. In 2003, he enrolled in a government-run sports academy in Ludhiana. In 2004, he committed his first crime in Ludhiana, kidnapping the son of a cinema owner.

His claim to fame was a high-profile robbery spree. Jaipal formed his own gang after splitting from Rocky Fazilka, along with Shera Khubban, Vicky Gounder, Prema Lahoriya, Gurpreet Sekhon, and others.

Following Rocky’s death, Bhullar took to Facebook to claim responsibility for the killing, claiming it was retaliation for the killing of Khubban.
However, unlike Gounder, who rose to prominence following Rocky’s death, Jaipal is said to have gone underground. Jaipal Singh’s social media posts became extremely irregular after claiming responsibility for Rocky’s death.

In 2017, he was accused of masterminding a Rs 1.33 crore robbery in Himachal Pradesh’s Banur.

In 2020, he increased his activity in Punjab once more, stealing 30 kg of gold in Ludhiana. Jaipal and three of his associates were arrested in May 2021 for allegedly killing two police officers in Jagraon, near Ludhiana.

Bhullar was gunned down in a joint operation of the Punjab and West Bengal Police in Kolkata in June 2021. Bishnoi, Lawrence

Lawrence Bishnoi was born to a wealthy family in Dhattaranwali, Punjab’s Ferozpur district (now Fazilka district), and attended DAV College in Chandigarh. He was also the president of Panjab University’s Student Organization (SOPU) over a decade ago. He is a member of the Bishnoi community, which is more prevalent in Rajasthan.

In his community, he has a sizable following. He is said to have planned to kill Bollywood actor Salman Khan in retaliation for the blackbuck case, as the Bishnoi community reveres blackbucks.

Bishnoi expanded his group across north India, forming key alliances with Haryana’s Kala Jathedi and Subbe Gujjar, Rajasthan’s Anand Pal Singh, and Delhi’s Jitender Gogi.

Lawrence Bishnoi

Bishnoi, 30, was arrested in 2016 and is charged with at least two dozen crimes, including murder, attempted murder, trespassing, assault, extortion, and robbery. Bishnoi was initially detained in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur jail, but was transferred to Delhi’s Mandoli jail a year ago in connection with a Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) case. He was later transferred to Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where he is still being held.

While Bishnoi and his main aides are in prison, another of his aides, Goldy Brar, is said to be in Canada. Brar allegedly took responsibility for the high-profile murder in a purported Facebook post.
According to the alleged Facebook post, Moose Wala was targeted to “avenge the death of Vicky Middukhera,” a Youth Akali Dal leader who was assassinated in August 2021.

Davinder Bambiha

Davinder Bambiha was born Davinder Singh Sidhu in the Moga district village of Bambiha Bhai. He excelled in school and also played kabaddi. He was imprisoned after his name was mentioned in a murder that occurred during a local brawl. He met several gangsters in prison and formed his own gang by the age of 21.

Bambiha and his associates rose to prominence quickly through a string of crimes. Bambiha enjoyed not only committing crimes, but also bragging about them on social media.

“If you can’t account for a murder in this area, put it down in my name,” he allegedly said.
Bambiha was killed in a police encounter near Rampura Phul in the Bathinda district in September 2016.

The Bambiha gang operated independently of the other major gangs of the time, including Rocky Fazilka, Jaipal, and Lawrence Bishnoi. However, his gang is known to have a “mutual respect relationship” with Vicky Gounder.

The Bambiha gang is still active, first under Dilpreet Baba and Sukhpreet ‘Budha,’ and now under Armenia-based gangster Gaurav ‘Lucky’ Patial.

Gangsters Neeraj Bawana and Tillu Tajpuria work closely with the Bambiha gang in Delhi and Haryana, which also has an alliance with the Kaushal Chaudhary gang in the region.
As previously reported, the Bambiha gang is a direct rival of the crime syndicate led by Lawrence Bishnoi, and there have been a number of killings between the two sides, including people who are not directly affiliated with the gangs.

It’s unclear when rivalry between the two gangs began.

However, the killings of Sarpanch Ravi Khwajke in 2016 by the Bambiha gang and Lavi Deora in 2017 by the Bishnoi gang are said to be the first acts of violence between them.

What Does This Mean for the Moose Wala Murder?

It is entirely possible that Moose Wala was murdered because the Bishnoi-Brar gang suspected him of being involved in the murder of Vicky Middukhera. However, we must keep the larger context in mind.

The assassination of Moose Wala occurred at a time when the Bishnoi crime syndicate is establishing itself as the dominant player in North Indian organized crime.

The elimination of a number of its rivals in police encounters – Shera Khubban, Davinder Bambiha, Vicky Gounder, Prema Lahoriya, and Jaipal Bhullar – has also worked in Bishnoi’s favor.
Sidhu Moose Wala, a Punjabi singer, was shot dead on Sunday in a village in Punjab’s Mansa district.

Though the Bishnoi gang has been arrested, including Bishnoi himself, Kala Jathedi, and Sampat Nehra, it has had fewer police encounters than rivals such as the Jaipal-Gounder and Bambiha gangs. Ankit Bhadu’s encounter is an exception in this regard.

Another factor is that some of Bishnoi’s rivals, such as Ramanjit Romi and Harwinder Rinda, have been accused by security agencies of working with Pakistan’s ISI and thus face increased scrutiny from a variety of agencies.

Despite this, the Bishnoi gang has received far less mainstream support than a figure like Rocky Fazilka. Because of the outpouring of rage in the aftermath of Moose Wala’s murder, the group is likely to face even more criticism, at least in Punjab. There will be significant public pressure on the state government and police to take firm action against the Bishnoi gang.

Not surprisingly, Bishnoi is resisting all efforts by the Punjab Police to extradite him back to the state, believing that he is safer in Delhi.

Another thing to keep an eye out for is rival gangs such as the Bambiha and Gounder gangs engaging in retaliatory killings. Mankirat Aulakh, a singer, has already received threats.