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Hoshiarpur police to grill Lawrence Bishnoi in 2019 extortion, shooting case
Moose Wala murder mastermind Lawrence Bishnoi, who was brought from Delhi’s Tihar jail to Mansa on transit remand on June 15, was later handed over to the Amritsar City police on June 27
The Hoshiarpur police on Monday got seven-day remand of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who has been identified as the “main mastermind” in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder, in a case of firing outside the house of a liquor contractor in December 2019.
Bishnoi, who was brought from Delhi’s Tihar jail to Mansa on transit remand on June 15, was later handed over to the Amritsar City police on June 27 to probe the murder of gangster Rana Kandowalia, who was gunned down at a private hospital last year.
On Monday, after his five-day custody in the Kandowalia case ended, Bishnoi was produced in an Amritsar court amid tight security, leading to a protest by local lawyers over the Punjab Police “sealing” the building and allegedly not allowing people to enter the complex for about an hour and a half.
Later, the Hoshiarpur police secured the gangster’s transit remand and took him away. In the afternoon, he was produced in a Hoshiarpur court, which sent him to police remand till July 18. Hours later, the gangster was again shifted to the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) office in Kharar, where he was earlier being interrogated in Moose Wala’s case.
Bishnoi was named as an accused in the Hoshiarpur firing case on the basis of a confessional statement of one of the accused. Some unidentified men had opened fire outside liquor contractor Naresh Aggarwal’s house in Hoshiarpur on December 20, 2019, after he reportedly refused to fulfil an extortion demand. Police probe had claimed that gangster Deepak Kumar, alias Binni Gujjar, had ordered the firing on Bishnoi’s directions.
Bhagwanpuria brought to Amritsar
Meanwhile, gangster Jagdeep Singh, alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, who was also brought from Delhi a week ago to probe his alleged involvement in Moose Wala’s case, was on Monday brought from Mansa on transit remand by the Amritsar Rural police to investigate a 2017 case wherein his gang had orchestrated an aide’s escape from police custody.
Bhagwanpuria, who is Bishnoi’s key aide in Majha region and also a key accused in Kandowalia case, was later produced in a Baba Bakala court, which sent him to police custody till July 17.
Bhagwanpuria’s aide Shubham — who was accused in two high-profile targeted killings — was being taken to an Amritsar court from the Kapurthala jail for a hearing on September 1, 2017, when about 10 gang members in two cars had helped him escape after opening fire at the Punjab Police vehicle ferrying him. “An FIR in this regard was registered at the Beas police station. We will question Bhagwanpuria in the case,” said senior superintendent of police (SSP), Amritsar Rural, Swarandeep Singh.
Sources said even Bhagwanpuria is likely to be taken back to the CIA office in Kharar, where he was being interrogated in Moose Wala’s case. However, despite the custodial interrogation of Bishnoi and Bhagwanpuria, the Punjab Police have failed to trace the two Punjab module shooters behind the singer’s murder: Manpreet Singh Mannu and Jagroop Singh Roopa. Even the murder weapons are yet to be recovered.
