Man with suspected link to shooters held in Ludhiana

LUDHIANA: An Amritsar man, who allegedly supplied weapons to shooters involved in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder, has been arrested by the Ludhiana police.

Identified as Satbir Singh, a resident of Talwandi Rai Dadu village in Amritsar, the suspect was arrested, following a tip-off, at a naka near Jalandhar Bypass, said station house officer (SHO), CIA-2, Beant Juneja on Thursday. However, Satbir’s accomplices Mandeep Singh of Batala, Manpreet Singh of Amritsar and a third unidentified person managed to escape, said the SHO. The police also seized a pistol and two live cartridges from the suspect beside impounding a Delhi-registered Toyota Fortuner in which he was travelling. Juneja claimed that it was the same SUV in which Satbir had delivered weapons to the shooters. It was caught on a CCTV camera installed at a fuel station in Bathinda, and police were on a lookout for it ever since, he said. Satbir was produced in court, which sent him to police remand for further interrogation.

BDPO in dock too

Meanwhile, a block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) of Hargobindpur in Gurdaspur has been booked after the recovery of a pistol from Satbir. Deputy commissioner of police, investigation, Varinder Brar said that the suspect, identified as Sandeep Singh Kahlon, alias Sona, had supplied the weapon to Satbir. Both Kahlon and Satbir own stud farms. The Ludhiana police, in an official press release, claimed that Kahlon had given the pistol to Satbir for his “personal safety” after Moose Wala’s murder and he was also arranging a fake passport to help him flee abroad.