In May 2020, when India was under the pandemic-induced lockdown, a video of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala went viral. The 28-year-old singer was pictured firing an AK-47 rifle at a shooting range in the presence of a few Punjab Police personnel. The policemen in the video were subsequently suspended and Moosewala was booked under the Arms Act and the Disaster Management Act. A day after getting anticipatory bail in the case, Moosewala released another song on his YouTube channel, comparing himself to actor Sanjay Dutt, who was jailed under the Arms Act back in 1993.
Moosewala, the enfant terrible of the Punjabi music industry, was always unapologetic about his promotion of guns and gangs. Ironically, he was gunned down on May 29 in what was said to be a gang hit.
Born Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu in a Jat Sikh family in Punjab’s Mansa district, Moosewala went to Canada in 2016 after finishing his B.Tech degree. He released his first song, ‘G Wagon’, while he was in Canada. His first hit track, ‘So High’, came in August 2017. Moosewala’s irreverent take on life, his rivals and society added to his appeal. During the farmers’ agitation, he hit a defiant note by telling Delhi that Punjab was not like Kashmir, and could not be suppressed. His decision to join the Congress last December and to contest the assembly polls showed that the cultural icon was ready for the political track as well.
Moosewala’s murder happened after Punjab’s two-month-old Aam Aadmi Party government under Bhagwant Mann withdrew security cover to 424 people saying that it was doing away with the state’s ‘VIP culture’. Inexplicably, the government revealed the names of the 424, including Moosewala. He was shot dead a day after the names were made public.
“My son used to get extortion calls and threats from the Lawrence Bishnoi group, which was why he got a bullet-proof car. As he was at home, his cousin and friend came to meet him. He left the house with them on a Mahindra Thar to meet his aunt. I followed him with two gunmen,” said Moosewala’s father, Balkaur Singh, according to the FIR. Director General of Police V.K. Bhawra said Moosewala was tailed by a white Corolla and was blocked by two other cars. The assassins opened fire and fled. He was taken to the Civil Hospital in Mansa, where he was declared dead on arrival.
“We are working on all angles. The Lawrence Bishnoi/Goldy Brar gang has taken responsibility,” said Mansa senior superintendent of police, Gaurav Toora. Bishnoi, currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in another case, denied any involvement. Brar, Bishnoi’s key associate based in Canada, however, claimed through an unverified social media post that Moosewala was killed because of his links to the murder of Youth Akali Dal leader Vicky Middukhera, who was close to Bishnoi. He was killed last August allegedly by gangsters belonging to the Davinder Bambiha group.
Despite Davinder’s death in an encounter in 2016, the Bambiha gang is still thriving and remains the most notorious gang in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, along with the Bishnoi gang. Other gangsters have alliances with these two gangs, ensuring pooling of resources and sharing of booty. As Punjabi songs, films and sports are major revenue earners, people working in these fields become obvious targets for extortion.
Unlike gangsters from elsewhere in the country, gang leaders from Punjab announce their kills on social media, and routinely share pictures from inside the jails. After Middukhera’s murder, the Bishnoi gang had vowed revenge, according to social media posts. There were allegations that Moosewala’s manager, Shagunpreet Singh, had a role in Middukhera’s murder. Shagunpreet fled the country after his name came up.
The Mann government has set up an anti-gangster unit to tackle the menace, but with the Moosewala hit, it is clearly on the back foot. “It is the utter failure of the Mann government and the DGP. It is a political murder,” said opposition leader Partap Singh Bajwa of the Congress. “They are trying to give a spin that it is the handiwork of gangsters. We have demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency about the withdrawal of security cover.”
The BJP, too, has blamed the AAP government. “They should answer why Moosewala’s security was withdrawn and a case should be registered against Mann,” said BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
The AAP is finding it difficult to explain the withdrawal of security cover and the publicising of the names. AAP spokesperson Malwinder Singh Kang said gangsters flourished in Punjab in the past one decade because of political patronage. “There is a trend of students-turned gangsters trying to associate themselves with film stars, sportsmen and singers. Moosewala became a victim of such organised crime.”
AAP leaders said the traditional political class was turning against the party as the Mann government started reclaiming encroached land and curtailing illegal sand mining. “These parties do not have any sympathy for Moosewala, they are trying to target us because they have been deprived of their influence. The Mann government will not spare anyone or give patronage to anyone as it happened in the past,” said Kang.
While the AAP government has a difficult mission in the aftermath of Moosewala’s gruesome murder, demand for societal curbs on the gun culture and gangs are growing. “As long as we celebrate gun culture, we will not be able to control it,” said Bhim Inder Singh, professor at Punjabi University, Patiala. “Just like there is a censor board for films, we should have a culture commission to keep in check the excessive celebration of guns and gangs in popular media.”