New Delhi (IANS): The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested the third shooter who was involved in the murder of famous Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala and another most wanted gangster of the Lawrence Bishnoi-Goldy Brar gang alliance, an official said on Monday.
The shooter, identified as Ankit Sirsa, was also previously found involved in two other heinous cases of attempt to murder in Rajasthan while the other accused, identified as Sachin Choudhary alias Sachin Bhiwani was responsible for harboring four of the shooters.
“The duo were nabbed near Mahatma Gandhi Marg, near Kashmiri Gate Bus stand on Sunday around 11.00 p.m.,” Delhi Police spokesperson Suman Nalwa said.
The senior official said that Sachin Bhiwani was the main person handling all the operations of Lawrence Bishnoi gang in Rajasthan.
“He was also wanted in a heinous case of Churu, Rajasthan,” Nalwa said.
At the time of their apprehension, the Special Cell recovered three Punjab Police uniforms from their possession apart from one pistol of 9 mm bore along with 10 live cartridges and one pistol of .30 mm bore along with 9 live cartridges.
Ankit Sirsa alias Chhota, an ambidextrous sharpshooter, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, was most desperate to commit the crime, police said.
“He fired simultaneously from two pistols in his two hands,” H.G.S. Dhaliwal, Special Commissioner (Special Cell), said during a media briefing.
The accused shooter was closest to Moose Wala’s car during the shootout.
Police said Sachin Choudhary provided shelter to the module of four shooters, immediately after the murder of the singer.
Later, he even helped them escape to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand and provided shelter there.
Moose Wala, 28, was shot dead on May 29 by six assailants who fired over 30 shots at him near Jawaharke village in Punjab’s Mansa district.
Sidhu was found soaked in blood on the driver’s seat of his Mahindra Thar SUV while two more occupants in the car, Gurwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh, also received bullet injuries, but survived.
The Special CP said during the past 30-35 days, these attackers changed over 30 locations and were constantly on the run to evade arrest.
The major breakthrough was achieved when the Special Cell on June 19 arrested module head Priyavrat alias Fauji and Kashish alias Kuldeep, and a facilitator named Keshav Kumar from Kutch district in Gujarat. They unravelled the conspiracy and execution of the crime.
After their arrest, the remaining members of the alliance continuously changed their hideouts, and sparingly used mobile phones for communication through end-to-end encrypted chat platforms.
The police have arrested three of the six shooters so far — Priyavrat, Kashish and Ankit alias Chhota. Three others are still at large.
News reports say that police also recovered photos of Sirsa brandishing pistols. These include one with him posing with an associate and another showing him holding a pistol in his left hand with bullets arranged to read “Moosewala”.