Lawrence Bishnoi is in Delhi's Tihar jail
The main suspect in the killing of Sidhu Moose Wala, gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, has not confessed so far but he has said the singer was killed for revenge, Delhi Police has said. He has also said his gang planned and executed the murder, not him.
Lawrence Bishnoi, who is lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail, was taken out of prison earlier this week to be questioned by the police on the killing of Sidhu Moose Wala on Sunday.
Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead by a group of attackers on Sunday at Jawahar Ke village, a day after his security was pared down by the Punjab government. His body had 19 bullet wounds and he died within 15 minutes of being shot, according to the post-mortem report.
Lawrence Bishnoi is said to be connected to Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, who claimed responsibility for Sidhu Moose Wala's murder in a Facebook post on the same day. In the post, Brar claimed the singer's name came up in the murder investigation of an Akali Dal leader but no action was taken against him.
Bishnoi has reportedly told the police that Goldy Brar had found out about Sidhu Moose Wala helping his manager, who was linked to Akali Dal leader Vicky Muthikheda's murder in August last year.
"Bishnoi has been very uncooperative so far. But during interrogation, he accepted that he had a rivalry with Moose Wala and claimed that his gang members killed the singer. He has revealed that Goldy Brar was one of the gang members who conspired and executed the killing of Moose Wala but has not yet disclosed the names of other associates who were the real conspirators and executioners of the killing," news agency PTI quoted a police officer as saying.
The police said they had been investigating Goldy Brar for allegedly planning several murders from Canada.
Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi allegedly planned murders together despite one living in Canada and one in jail.
Other members of Lawrence Bishnoi's gang were London-based Raja Monty and Kala Rana, who was extradited to India from Thailand and arrested in March. They are allegedly involved in some 30 murders.
With agency inputs