Plea filed in Mansa court to expedite Moose Wala murder trial

The counsel for gangster Anmol Bishnoi, who was deported from the United States last year and is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail, has moved an application in Mansa court seeking directions to expedite the trial in the case of the murder of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moose Wala

The counsel for gangster Anmol Bishnoi, who was deported from the United States last year and is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail, has moved an application in Mansa court seeking directions to expedite the trial in the case of the murder of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moose Wala.

The counsel for gangster Anmol Bishnoi, who was deported from the United States last year and is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail, has moved an application in Mansa court seeking directions to expedite the trial in the case of the murder of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moose Wala.

Anmol, the younger brother of jailed gangster and designated terrorist Lawrence Bishnoi, was deported from the US in November last year and arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Anmol’s counsel, RS Behniwal, who also represents other accused in the case, said on Wednesday that the Mansa sessions court will hear the case on March 20, when the prosecution is expected to submit a reply to his application to bring the accused on a production warrant from Delhi after a formal arrest in the murder case. The application was submitted on February 27.

“As Anmol has not been taken into custody and questioned by the Punjab Police, the bail applications of a few accused in the Moose Wala murder case, like Manpreet Singh alias Bhau and Prabhdeep Singh, are getting delayed. Anmol is an accused in the crime, and an application was moved pleading the court to direct the police to arrest him to expedite the proceedings,” said Behniwal. At the last hearing in the case, held on March 6, the court stated that a reply to the application urging the issuance of a production warrant for Anmol had been filed. Since his deportation and arrest, the state police have not questioned him once.

According to Punjab Police officials, Anmol, who had been operating from abroad, is accused of being a key conspirator in the 2022 murder of Moose Wala and of providing logistical support and weapons to the assailants who shot the singer-turned Congress leader dead near his native village in Mansa on May 29, 2022.

A few days after Anmol was deported from the US and arrested, the Union home ministry had barred any police or investigating agency from taking physical custody of Anmol for one year due to security risk.

However, Anmol’s counsel Behniwal said in his application that the state police should use the MHA’s provision that allows Anmol to be questioned by any agency in Tihar.

According to the police probe, Anmol worked closely with Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar and his brother Lawrence Bishnoi in planning and executing the murder of the Punjabi rapper.

Investigators said that Anmol fled India in April 2022 using a fake passport, just days before Moose Wala’s murder, in an attempt to mislead investigating agencies.

Anmol had been living in the US under the false identity ‘Bhanu’ after entering the country with a forged passport. His asylum application was reportedly found to contain fabricated documents. The NIA arrested him on November 19 in a separate probe linked to the Baba Siddique attack and terror-funding cases.