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Vikramjeet Brar, who is allegedly involved in the sensational killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, deported from Dubai
NEW DELHI: In a major development in the terror-gangster-smuggler nexus case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested Vikramjeet Singh, alias Vikram Brar, a key aide of notorious jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, immediately after his deportation from the UAE to India.
A team from the NIA had gone to the UAE to facilitate this deportation and bring him back to India.
Brar, involved in the sensational killing of famous Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh, aka Sidhu Moosewala, was taken into custody by the NIA.
Besides targeted killings of innocent people, including businessmen, Brar was involved in cases of smuggling of weapons and extortion in India with the help of dreaded gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar and others.
Absconding since 2020, Brar was wanted in at least 11 cases of murder, attempt to murder and extortion under various sections of the IPC as well as the Arms Act. Eleven Look Out Notices had been issued against him by the competent authority on request by various State Police, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Brar was operating as a ‘communications control room’ (CCR) for the Lawrence Bishnoi terror gang from the UAE. This CCR was also facilitating the calls of Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar (based in Canada) and upon their directions, he used to make extortion calls to various people. Brar’s CCR also enabled calls between the main gang leaders and the operatives and members.
An open-dated Non-Bailable Warrant of Arrest (NBWA) had been issued by the NIA Special Court, Delhi. A Look Out Circular (LOC) was also issued in the name of Brar, who was charge sheeted on March 24, 2022, in the case of the UA(P) Act.
In 2020-2022, according to NIA investigations, Brar actively helped Goldy Brar execute the killing of Moosewala.
Lawrence Bishnoi had also extorted money many times to Brar through Hawala channels. Brar had demanded extortion money from a doctor in Kurukshetra (Haryana) and also threatened him.
Before becoming a close associate of Bishnoi, Brar was associated with the Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) at Punjab University. Along with other associates, he actively participated in various crimes like murder, attempt to murder and extortion etc. He had been assisting and facilitating the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in targeted killings and extortions in Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. He was also providing logistic support to the gang members.
The NIA has so far arrested 16 persons in the terror-gangster conspiracy case. Further investigations into the conspiracy are continuing as part of the NIA’s efforts to destroy the growing nexus between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers, and to dismantle their infrastructure, including funding channels.
In recent months, the NIA has been successful in getting five ‘wanted’ absconders, either deported or extradited to India due to close coordination with central intelligence agencies and persistent follow-up with the concerned authorities in foreign countries.
Bikramjit Singh alias Bikkar Panjwar alias Bikkar Baba, the mastermind of the Tarn Taran bomb blasts, was successfully extradited from Austria in December 2022. This was the first extradition case of its kind from a Western country.
Prior to this, the only other extradition since the setting up of the NIA was that of Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich, alias Willy, in December 2015 from Thailand.
The other four deported accused were wanted for the commission of serious and sensational crimes, such as the Ludhiana Court Complex blast case etc. They included Kulwinderjit Singh alias Khanpuria of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Harpreet Singh alias Happy Malaysia, Parminder Pal Singh @ Bobby and Aboobacker Haji.
