Two of six assailants who gunned down Moosewala held from Gujarat

New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) In a major breakthrough, the Special Cell of Delhi Police said on Monday that it has arrested three persons -- two main shooters and their facilitator -- who were involved in the brutal killing of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh, popularly known as Sidhu Moosewala.

The two accused shooters, identified as Priyavrat alias Fauji (26), a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, and Kashish alias Kuldeep (24), a resident of Jhajjar in Haryana, were arrested from Kutch district in Gujarat on Sunday.

Addressing the media here on Monday, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), H.S. Dhaliwal, said that Priyavrat was the head of the module of gangsters who led the team of shooters. He was in direct touch with Canada-based gangstar Goldy Brar at the time of the incident.

"He was the main shooter and executioner of the murder who could be seen in the CCTV footage of a petrol pump in Fatehgarh just before the incident," Dhaliwal said.

Priyavrat was previously involved in two murder cases and was arrested in 2015.

"Kashish alias Kuldeep, the second accused shooter, was also seen in the CCTV footage of the petrol pump," Dhaliwal said.

The third arrestee has been identified as Keshav Kumar (29), a resident of Bhatinda, Punjab.

"He acted as a facilitator and received the shooters just after the shootout in an Alto car," Dhaliwal said.

Keshav accompanied the shooters till Mansa on the day of incident, during reconnaissance and also during the previous attempts.

Apart from arresting the two accused shooters, the police have also recovered a large cache of arms and explosives.

Dhaliwal said the Bolero car in which four of the assailants came was being driven by Kashish, who was accompanied by Priyavrat, Ankit Sirsa and Deepak Mundi.

The second car was being driven by Jagroop Roopa and had another assailant named Manpreet Mannu in it.

"A person named Sandeep Kekda gave the initial intimation about Moosewala's movement without security following which the assailants got the final go ahead to execute the murder," the officer said.

The car in which Jagroop Roopa and Manpreet Mannu were travelling first overtook Moosewala's car and abruptly stopped it in front of it.

"Manpreet Mannu first came out of the car and started firing indiscriminately with his AK-47 rifle, injuring Moosewala who couldn't drive his car further," Dhaliwal said.

The other four assailants in the Bolero car -- Priyavrat, Kashish, Ankit Sirsa and Deepak Mundi -- also reached the spot at the same time.

"All the four assailants stepped out of the car and shot at Moosewala multiple times," the officer said.

After committing the gruesome murder, Jagroop Roopa and Manpreet Mannu fled the spot in their Corolla car while the other four assailants escaped in their Bolero car.

Some distance ahead, the assailants in the Bolero car met Keshav Kumar who transported them to Fatehabad. The assailants stayed in Fatehabad for a few days before heading for multiple locations.

Dhaliwal also made a startling revelation that the assailants would have used grenades to kill the singer in case the guns didn't work.

"The shooters had kept grenades as a back-up plan in case the guns didn't work," he said.

Priyavrat, Kashish and Keshav were arrested from Baroi village in Gujarat's Kutch district on Sunday.

"A team of Special Cell was deployed, and all the three accused were arrested in a swift operation," Dhaliwal said.

On the instance of module head Priyavrat, the police found a huge cache of arms and ammunition hidden in a village in Haryana.

"We recovered eight grenades along with an under barrel grenade launcher. The high explosive grenades are designed for use with grenade launchers. The grenade launcher can be mounted on AK-47 assault rifles," Dhaliwal said.

Apart from grenades, the police also found nine electric detonators, one assault rifle along with 20 rounds, three sophisticated star pistols of .30 bore, 36 rounds of 7.62 mm star pistols and parts of AK series assault rifle.

Popular singer Moosewala, 28, was shot dead on May 29 while he was travelling in a car near his village in Punjab's Mansa district. Eight assailants fired over 30 shots at him in Jawaharke village in Mansa district.

Sidhu was found soaked in blood on the driving seat of a Mahindra Thar SUV while two other occupants of the car -- Gurwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh -- also received bullet injuries.

The motive behind Moosewala's killing is still unclear and even the Delhi Police refrained from divulging any further details, saying that their duty is to stop organised crime.

"It is a mandate of the Special Cell to stop organised crime and check if there is any terror into it. Whenever a big crime takes place anywhere in the country, we proactively start probing it so as to prevent a similar kind of incident that might occur in the national capital," Dhaliwal said.