Two weeks after the special investigation team (SIT) probing the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala filed a third supplementary chargesheet in the case, naming gangster Sachin Thapan, alias Sachin Bishnoi, a key conspirator, the Mansa chief judicial magistrate expedited the judicial process by committing it to the sessions court on Wednesday.
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Sachin was produced before the Mansa CJM and sent to judicial custody. The SIT had brought him from Delhi.
In December, the National Investigation Agency had taken custody of Sachin in connection with gangster-terror case.
In the past, the court has taken at least three months to commit the chargesheets to the trial court, while on this occasion the challan was committed within two weeks.
Mansa CJM Surabhi Prasher said the present supplementary challan is committed to the Mansa sessions court for January 23 as the main challan has already been committed to it. “The accused is directed to appear before the court so that arguments on charges against all accused can be heard together,” she said.
On December 27, the SIT filed a third supplementary chargesheet in the Moose Wala murder case in the court of Mansa CJM, under Sections 302, 307, 341, 326, 148, 149, 427, 120-B, 109, 473, 212 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code, and various sections of the Arms Act and Prisons Act.
{{/usCountry}}On December 27, the SIT filed a third supplementary chargesheet in the Moose Wala murder case in the court of Mansa CJM, under Sections 302, 307, 341, 326, 148, 149, 427, 120-B, 109, 473, 212 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code, and various sections of the Arms Act and Prisons Act.
{{/usCountry}}Moose Wala was shot dead by six assailants at Jawahar Ke village in Mansa district on May 29, 2022.
Sachin, who is the nephew of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, had fled to Azerbaijan using a forged passport in 2022. He was detained by the authorities there. After fighting a legal battle in Azerbaijan to avoid extradition to India, he was sent back in August last year. Initially, he was in the custody of National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a case related to terror-gangster network.
Two months after he was extradited from Baku in Azerbaijan, Mansa police brought him on transit remand from Delhi on September 29. He was interrogated by the Punjab Police’s Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) and SIT for two weeks.
Sachin is one of the four gangsters who allegedly hatched the conspiracy to murder Moose Wala. In a bid to mislead the police after the murder, he told a news channel that he had shot and killed Moose Wala ‘with his own hands’ as an act of revenge. It is, however, learnt that he had fled the country before the murder.
Sachin left India via Dubai just before Moose Wala’s murder on a fake passport. “He fled to Dubai on a fake passport issued in the name of Tilak Raj Tuteja, a resident of Sangam Vihar in southeast Delhi. Later, he took a flight to Baku, where he was detained,” an SIT member said.
The SIT probing Moose Wala’s murder has filed four chargesheets, including three supplementary chargesheets, against 34 accused, including gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, claiming the murder was part of a series of revenge killings between the Bishnoi and Bambiha gangs.
Of the total 34 accused, the police has arrested 29. Two of them, Mandeep Singh and Manmohan Singh, were killed during a clash in Goindwal jail in February. Three accused, including Goldy Brar, Anmol Bishnoi and Lipin Nehra, are absconding and are believed to be abroad. Two shooters, Manpreet Singh Mannu and Jagroop Singh Roopa, were killed in a police encounter in Amritsar before the filing of the chargesheets.