Gangsters gunning for control of Punjab music industry: Officials see Mumbai underworld redux
Drawing parallels between the murders of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala nearly two months back and that of renowned music producerGu lsh an Kumar 25 years ago, enforcement agencies said prima facie, it appears Canada-based Punjabi gangsters are eyeing a complete control over the state’s music industry, similar to what Mumbai’s underworld did in 1980s till early 2000s.
Since most of the successful Punjabisingers have linkages with Canada – they either have permanent residency permits or citizenship of the North American country – they are at increased risk of being targeted by gangsters, said police officers familiar with the matter.
HGS Dhaliwal, the special commissioner of Delhi Police Special Cell, which is one of investigating agencies probing the Moosewala murder case, said the murder of the Punjabi singer was reminiscent of the gruesome killing of Gulshan Kumar, the founder and owner of music label T-Series, on August 12, 1997.
“Both music stars were killed in a similar fashion. While Gulshan Kumar was shot dead by three assailants when he was coming out of a temple in Mumbai, Moosewala was gunned down by six gangsters on a highway,” the officer said.
“Just as the Mumbai’s music industrycame underthe influence of gangsters associated with Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company after Kumar’s murder, Punjab gangsters are trying to ensure their writ runs on Punjabi folk music after killing Moosewala.”
Moosewala was shot dead at Jawaharke village in Punjab’s Mans a district on May 29, when he was travelling with two associates.
The current value of the Punjabi music industry is around ₹60,000 crore and has an average annual growth rate of 15%, said Pramod Kushwaha, New Delhi range deputy commissioner of police (Special Cell). “It is not far behind the current value of Bollywood music industry of around ₹1,00,000crore, havinganaverage growthof10%. The music industry in Punjab has over 450 registered music labels that release around 20 to 25 songs every day. In 2021, the industry released over 5,000 music videos,” he said.
“Extortion and protection money is now an accepted practice, with the underworld gangs aiming togainashare. Theculture of violence has also become an integral part with more and more young rappers often appear normalising violence,” Kushwaha added.
Echoing similar views, an officer of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch said the module used in Moosewala’s killing wasverysimilar to that used in Gulshan Kumar’s murder.
“This module is known as ‘blindfold vertical capsule’, in which none of the verticals — killers, arms’ suppliers, financers and hideout facilitators — know each other. All these verticals have only one communication point —the person who is at the top of this capsule’s pyramid and gives directions from some foreign country,” the officer said, declining to be named. “In Moosewala’s murder, while (jailed gangster) Lawrence Bishnoi was the main conspirator, Canada-based gangster Goldy Br ar was the coordinator.”
All the verticals of this module change their locations frequently and interact with the chief coordinator only through the internet, the officer said.
“Canada-based Punjabi gangsters have started hiring sharpshooters from smaller places, like Mumbai’s underworld used to source Az am ga rh boys ,” he added, referring to the D-Company’s modus operandi of hiring boys with clean records from Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district and assigning them targets after bringing them to Mumbai.
Officials from the Punjab Police, however, said the violence and threats are mainly due to“proximity” between artists and gangsters. “While Punjabi music industry is the easiest way to make ‘white’ money for the gangsters, it is also the best way for artistes to avoid extortion and death threats,” said a senior Punjab Police officer, asking not to be named. “Gangsters often ask for the copyright of one or two songs from each Punjabi folk artist and they guarantee their safety in return. Most of these singers initially want patronage... But after a while, these bad elements morph into Frankenstein’s monsters...”
“It is an accepted norm for the Punjabi music industry that when a singer is promoted by elements linked to a particular gang, that artist gets branded as an associate of that gang. There is no way out of this tag.”
Artistes have also expressed concerns over their safety following the broad daylight murder of Moosewala.
“Most people will never know theextentof whatyouhave to deal with as a Punjabi artist behind the scenes on a daily basis,” Amritpal Singh Dhillon, an India-born Canadian singer and a close associate of Moosewala, wrote in on Instagram.
Singer Mika Singh said: “I am telling you from personal experiences… dealing with threats is very difficult.”
Singh’s security has recently beenbeefedup as aprecaution following Moosewala’s murder.