The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has formally informed Punjab Police about Goldy Brar, who allegedly coordinated singer Sidhu Moose Wala's murder, having been caught in California, sources today said. The FBI communication, seen as the first step towards bringing Brar to India, has come through the Ministry of External Affairs.
Goldy Brar has been detained in the city of Sacramento, it said, according to sources.
He was in Canada since 2017 and recently moved to the US as he feared law enforcement and rival gangs. He was detained around November 20. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had announced this "big breakthrough" earlier this week.
The FBI is learnt to have already interrogated Brar, who had taken responsibility for the murder through a Facebook post.
Sidhu Moose Wala, a rapper with international fame who also was a Congress leader, was killed on May 29 near his village, Moosa, in Mansa district of Punjab. The shooters and plotters were caught or died in encounters, but Goldy Brar, who allegedly worked in tandem with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, continued to move bases in Canada and later the US.
Goldy Brar, whose full name is Satinderjit Singh, worked as a trucker after having moved to Canada originally on student visa five years ago. A native of Muktsar district in Punjab's southern belt bordering Haryana and Rajasthan, Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi became friends during their student politics days in Chandigarh around a decade ago. Lawrence Bishnoi is imprisoned for years — he was in Tihar Jail when Moose Wala was killed in May — from where he has been running his gang, it is alleged.
In his Facebook post, Brar had said he got Sidhu Moose Wala killed "in retaliation" for the murder of a Youth Akali Dal leader, Vicky Middukhera. In that murder case, a former associate of Sidhu Moose Wala had once been named for questioning. Police, too, had initially linked Moose Wala's killing to "inter-gang" rivalry, but later stressed this didn't mean the singer was involved with any gang.
Brar, before being detained in California's Sacramento city, had been living in Fresno city and had safehouses in Frizow and Salt Lake too, sources have said. NDTV had reported in July that two men who looked like Goldy Brar were attacked by a rival gang.
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