Goldy Brar: Punjab cop’s son is now Canada’s most wanted
Faridkot: Fugitive gangster Satinderjeet Singh, alias Goldy Brar, who was only limited to local gang rivalries while in Punjab, swiftly climbed the crime ladder from being Punjab Police’s most wanted man to now on the list of Canada’s 25 most wanted
Faridkot: Fugitive gangster Satinderjeet Singh, alias Goldy Brar, who was only limited to local gang rivalries while in Punjab, swiftly climbed the crime ladder from being Punjab Police’s most wanted man to now on the list of Canada’s 25 most wanted. He is placed 15th on the list, wanted for the murder, criminal conspiracy, supply of illegal firearms, and attempt to murder charges.
Four years ago, Brar (29), who is the mastermind of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moose Wala and Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep Singh’s murders, was just a college drop-out who had a few brushes with the law while in Punjab. A resident of Muktsar in the Malwa belt, Brar is a son of a former policeman. In 2012, when he was 18, Brar was first booked under Section 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a case involving a clash between two groups. He had no case against him when he moved to Canada, on a student visa, in 2019, ostensibly to study. He was acquitted in all four cases registered against him before 2019.
But soon after landing in Canada, he took over the control of an organised crime network. While gangster Lawrence Bishnoi is in jail, Brar runs operations of the gang from abroad with access to gang members, available pan India, at his disposal. Brar embraced the underworld and started running extortion rackets and taking up contract-killing assignments. Now, 50 cases of murder, attempt to murder and extortion have been registered against him in various districts of Punjab, reveal police records.
He not only masterminded crimes but provided real-time assistance to his men by using his network in Punjab. Presently, Brar is the brain of the Bishnoi gang, who brings a plan together and executes it. Even weapons and money is arranged by Brar, a police official said, on condition of anonymity.
An Interpol red notice was also issued against Brar last year. Despite Indian agencies on his back, Brar was last year reported to have moved to the US.
Brar is a known name in Punjab but was relatively unknown across the rest of the country and Canada till May 29, 2022.
Shot into limelight
Brar claimed responsibility for the sensational May 29 killing of Moose Wala, in Mansa district. According to the 1,850-page chargesheet filed in the Moose Wala murder case, Goldy Brar was the mastermind behind the killing. Brar claimed that he got Moose Wala killed to avenge the death of another student leader Vicky Middukhera.
He and Bishnoi were convinced that one of Moose Wala’s old associates had a role in Middukhera’s killing, cops said.
Brar first shot into the limelight in February 2021 after the killing of Faridkot Youth Congress leader Gurlal Singh Bhullar alias Pehalwan, which police claimed he did to avenge the murder of his cousin Gurlal Brar, a former state president of the Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU). Since then, he has increased his activities by masterminding heinous crimes, claim the police.
On November 10, Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep, an accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, was killed at the directions of Brar, the police added. Police have invoked the Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act against Brar in this case.
Brar is wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Punjab Police in cases of terror, murder, attempt to murder, loot, extortion and kidnapping.
In March, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had filed a chargesheet against 14 gangsters, including Goldy Brar, for allegedly having links with the proscribed Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and several other pro-Khalistani terrorist outfits. NIA claimed that its investigation revealed that Brar had direct links with Canada-based-terrorist Lakhbir Singh, alias Landa, another BKI operative working closely with Harwinder Singh, alias Rinda, a Pakistan-based BKI terrorist.
Brar’s father Shamsher Singh was an ASI in Muktsar police and took premature retirement in 2021. On March 9, 2021, he was arrested for his alleged role in an extortion racket. The FIR alleged that while Brar was the kingpin of the extortion racket and his father used to carry out reconnaissance of potential victims and pass on the information to his son.
Brar’s family still lives in Adesh Nagar on Kotkapura-Muktsar Road. Fear of the gangster was evident as no one in the neighbourhood wanted to talk about him.
