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Amritsar police to grill Lawrence Bishnoi in gangster Kandowalia’s murder case
Lawrence Bishnoi, who will be kept at the joint interrogation centre in Amritsar, is likely to be produced in a local court for seeking his custody on Tuesday
The Amritsar commissionerate police on Monday brought gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is a prime accused in the murder of singer Sidhu Moose Wala, on transit remand for questioning in the killing of gangster Ranbir Singh, alias Rana Kandowalia, who was shot dead at a private hospital in Amritsar last year.
Bishnoi, who will be kept at the joint interrogation centre, is likely to be produced in a local court for seeking his custody on Tuesday. Amritsar police commissioner Arun Pal Singh said Bishnoi’s name emerged during investigation into Kandowalia’s killing. “He (Bishnoi) is suspected to be the main conspirator,” he said.
Earlier, the Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) probing Moose Wala’s murder brought Bishnoi to Mansa from Kharar, where his interrogation was going on at the CIA office, after his police remand ended on Monday. On June 15, the Punjab Police had secured Bishnoi’s seven-day custody after bringing him from New Delhi on transit remand. The remand was later extended till July 27.
While the court sent Bishnoi to 14-day judicial custody in Moose Wala’s murder case, he was arrested by the Amritsar commissionerate police after they approached the court for the gangster’s transit remand in Kandowalia murder case. Gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, the Bishnoi gang’s ally in Punjab’s Majha region, is also a prime accused in the case.
Kandowalia, who had been facing around 15 criminal cases, died a day after he was shot at by four unidentified persons at a private hospital where he had gone to enquire about his cousin’s health on August 3 last year.
Later, a post from the jailed gangster Bhagwanpuria’s purported Facebook account claimed the responsibility for the murder, terming it a revenge for Kandowalia’ support to gangsters Vicky Gounder and Devinder Bambiha in the past. A key accused in the 2016 Patti gang war that left Bhagwanpuria’s aide Dilbag Singh, alias Lama Patti, dead, Kandowalia had surrendered before the special task force in February 2017.
Besides Bhagwanpuria, the four assailants, identified as Money Rayya, Mandeep Singh Toofan, Happy Shah, and a Haryana-based man, were booked for Kandowalia’s murder. Shah told police that the conspiracy to kill him was hatched by Bhagwanpuria and Goldy Brar, who is also a prime accused in Moose Wala’s killing. When Kandowalia was killed, Bhagwanpuria was in Delhi’s Tihar jail, where Bishnoi was also lodged, a senior police official said on the condition of anonymity.
(With inputs by Parteek Singh Mahal in Faridkot)
