Moose Wala murder: Main shooter stayed in Dehradun for 3 months

Priyavrat Fauji, 26, the alleged main shooter in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder, stayed in a rented accommodation in Dehradun for about three months earlier this year, the Uttarakhand Police have said.

“Priyavrat lived in a rented accommodation near a nursing home in Nehru Colony for about three months along with a few accomplices, whose identity is unknown, and left in April,” said Ajay Singh, senior superintendent of police (SSP) in the state’s special task force (STF).

A week ago, a team of the Punjab Police had arrived in Dehradun in search of one of the shooters who stayed here, he added. Hours after securing the custody of mastermind Lawrence Bishnoi after bringing him from Delhi on transit remand on June 15, the Punjab Police had conducted raids in Uttarakhand but failed to arrest any shooter.

Moose Wala was shot dead in broad daylight on May 29, when he was travelling in his SUV, just a few kilometres away from his home in Punjab’s Mansa district. Two days after the murder, the Punjab police special investigation team (SIT) and the Uttarakhand Police’s STF had arrested Manpreet Singh, alias Bhau, from Dehradun in a joint operation. Bhau, who according to the SIT was involved in the conspiracy from the beginning, had provided a Toyota Corolla used in the crime.

While the shooters kept evading the Punjab Police, the special cell of the Delhi Police made a major breakthrough in the case with the arrest of two — Priyavrat and Kashish — and an aide from Gujarat’s Kutch district on June 19. A cache of ammunition, including a Kalashnikov assault rifle, eight grenades, and three pistols with 50 rounds of cartridges, were also recovered from them.

According to the Delhi Police, Priyavrat, who was the module head and the main shooter, was in direct touch with Canada-based gangster and Bishnoi’s key aide Goldy Brar and led the team at the time of the crime. He was seen on a CCTV at a petrol pump in Fatehgarh, Haryana, days before the murder.

Three accused sent to judicial custody

Meanwhile, a day after extending the police remand of Bishnoi and six other co-accused, a Mansa court on Wednesday granted the police three more days of custody of Manmohan Singh Mohanna while sending Monu Dagar, Pawan Bishnoi and Naseeb Khan to 14-day judicial custody.

According to sources, the SIT has recovered two mobiles phone from Mohanna’s house, which he allegedly used to contact Goldy Brar through WhatsApp calls. “The phones have been sent for forensic examinations to trace Brar’s location,” sources cited above said.

The Mansa police also brought one Sukhjeet Singh of Jeewan Singhwala village on production warrants from the Faridkot jail. The court has sent him to three-day police remand. As per sources, Bishnoi had taken his name during interrogation.

The Punjab Police are continuously conducting raids at possible hideouts of the shooters across five states —Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The SIT has identified three other shooter so far — Manpreet Singh Mannu, Ankit Sirsa and Jagroop Singh Roopa.

(With inputs by Parteek Singh Mahal in Faridkot)