‘Delhi-based gang helped Moosewala killing suspect get a forged passport’

“The gang had a nexus with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and other criminals,” said Benita Mary Jaiker, DCP (South), Delhi Police.

About a month before Punjabi singer and Congress leader Sidhu Moosewala was murdered, one of the alleged key conspirators Sachin Thapan Bishnoi got a passport issued in Delhi, using forged documents and fled the country, Delhi Police said on Wednesday while announcing the arrest of five people who helped Thapan and some other criminals get passports on fake papers.

Singer-politician Sidhu Moosewala was shot dead in Punjab's Mansa on May 29. (File Photo)

Thapan is the nephew of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the prime accused in the murder of Moosewala. Officers said Thapan got the passport issued in the name of a man from Sangam Vihar.

The interrogation of the five arrested suspects exposed a well-managed web of passport agents, middlemen and employees of local Aadhaar Kendra centres, who helped the city’s gangsters flee the country by helping them get passports.

Sidhu Moosewala was shot dead by gunmen on May 29 when he, along with his cousin and a friend, was driving to Jawaharke village in Punjab’s Mansa district. After the murder, Thapan had posted messages on his unverified social media accounts, claiming that he along with Lawrence Bishnoi and gangster Goldie Brar (currently based in Canada) were behind the murder.

The Punjab and Delhi Police have confirmed that the murder was planned by Bishnoi’s gang. Police had said that Bishnoi’s two accomplices, Sachin Thapan and Anmol Bishnoi, fled India using fake passports. While the gunmen and other people who assisted in the murder have been arrested by Punjab and Delhi Police, Thapan and Anmol are on the run. Police suspect the gang also helped Anmol get a passport, and are looking for evidence. The two criminals are suspected to have escaped to Dubai, police said.

Benita Mary Jaiker, deputy commissioner of police (south district) identified the four held for the fraud as Rahul Sarkar, 27, Arjit Kumar, 55, Somnath Prajapat, 33 and Naveen Prajapat, 33. Police did not reveal the name of the fifth suspect, a woman.

“The gang had a nexus with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and other criminals. Thapan , Bishnoi’s nephew, was involved in the conspiracy behind the Moosewala’s murder,” DCP Jaiker said.

The officer said that on July 4, police received information about a man named Rahul Sarkar, a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. “Acting on the information, we laid a trap near the Saket Metro Station foot overbridge and arrested Sarkar,” she said.

Police said that during interrogation, Sarkar revealed the names of his accomplices. Sarkar runs a computerised documents shop where he helped people apply for PAN cards, other documents and fill online forms.

Police said the woman suspect, who works with an event management company, introduced Sarkar to Arjit sometime last year. They said Arjit, a resident of Punjab, called up Sarkar on WhatsApp, sought Sarkar’s help in getting a passport for Thapan.