DEHRADUN: The Punjab Police on Monday detained five men here in connection with the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala a day before, officials said.
They were picked up from the Shimla bypass area here and taken to Punjab for interrogation, a police official said on condition of anonymity.
Moosewala was shot dead on Sunday by unidentified assailants in Punjab's Mansa district, a day after his security cover was withdrawn by the state government.
The five persons were picked up over suspicion of having links with the case, the official said.
The five men were returning from Hemkund Sahib, a Himalayan Sikh shrine located in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, the official said.
The Punjab Police will now ascertain the role played by them in the singer's murder, the official added.
Punjab Police has contacted top officials of the Delhi Police to seek information about members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and Kala Jathedi and Kala Rana who are currently lodged in jails, sources said on Monday.
Sources also said Punjab Police can also take Bishnoi gang members into their custody and interrogate them about the murder of Sidhu Moose Wala who joined the Congress in December last year.
At present, both Kala Jathedi and Kala Rana are in the custody of the Delhi Police Special Cell in cases under MCOCA.
Moose Wala was shot dead on Sunday evening in the Mansa district of Punjab, a day after the Punjab Police withdrew the security of 424 people including the singer.
The murder plot of Sidhu Moose Wala is suspected to have been hatched in Delhi's Tihar Jail, as a phone number in connection with the singer's killing has been tracked back to the jail, according to sources.
A few days ago, a criminal namely Shahrukh was arrested by Delhi Police. He was found to be using a messaging app to communicate from jail with Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, who has claimed responsibility for the murder of the singer.
Since Brar is a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, the Delhi Police Special Cell, suspecting the involvement of the gang, is questioning gangster Bishnoi and his aides Kala Jathedi and Kala Rana in connection with Moose Wala's murder. Bishnoi is currently lodged in a jail in Rajasthan.
Punjab Police had also said that the attack on Moose Wala seemed to be due to an inter-gang war.
Earlier today, Delhi Police said that it suspected that the murder of Moose Wala could be a result of the killing last year of Vikramjit alias Vicky Middukhera.
According to the Delhi police special cell, names of Moose Wala and his manager, Shaganpreet came up in connection with the murder of Vicky in August last year.
Special Cell of Delhi Police recently became aware of the nexus of notorious gangsters Neeraj Bawania and Tillu Tajpuria. Bawania and Tajpuria had teamed up with different gangsters Kaushal Chaudhary, Davinder Bhambia, and Lucky Patial from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Delhi Police had arrested about a dozen miscreants of this five-member gang in connection with the murder of Vicky. Those arrested were identified as sharpshooter Sajjan Singh alias Bholu, Anil Kumar alias Lath and Ajay Kumar alias Sunny Kaushal. During interrogation, the arrested trio had talked about the alleged involvement of Moose Wala and his manager in the Vicky murder case. Moose Wala's manager was named as the accused in the FIR registered in this case.
As per reports, Vicky was a close friend of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi who is serving time in jail in Bharatpur, Rajasthan since 2017 for various crimes.
In a post on his purported Facebook page, Bishnoi's aide gangster Goldy Brar has taken responsibility for the murder of singer Moose Wala.
(With PTI and ANI Inputs)