Singer’s death shines light on violence in Punjabi music industry
Ravinder Vasudeva and Vishal Rambani
CHANDIGARH: The video is still up on his YouTube page, one of the last that he uploaded, and has at last count 14 million views. On May 15, Sidhu Moosewala released a song called the “Last Ride”, a homage to rapper Tupac Shakur, the American rapper who was shot dead in his car in 1996 at the age of 25. The song’s cover photo is the vehicle Tupac he was travelling in that day, and has the lyrics “Ho chobbar de chehre utte noor dassda, ni ehda uthuga jawani ch janaja mithiye (The glow on the face of this young man shows that he will die young).” Two weeks later, in a planned attack on Sunday, 28-year-old Moosewala was dead, his slumped body behind the wheel of a black Mahindra jeep riddled with bullets. The song could well have been the chronicle of a death foretold.
Hours after his murder, Punjab Police DGP VK Bhawra said it was the fallout of inter-gang rivalry, with members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang declaring that they carried out the murder as revenge for the 2021 killing of Vicky Middukhera, an Akali Dal Youth Wing leader, for which they held Moosewala responsible. Though this is the first killing of a singer in Punjab since militancy ended three decades ago, the attack has shone a spotlight on the dark underbelly of the Punjabi music industry, their affinity for violence and guns in their music, and its relationship with organised crime.
The rise of Moosewala
The rise of Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known by his stage name Sidhu Moosewala, was nothing short of meteoric. In 2016, after having completed a course in electrical engineering from Punjab, Moosewala moved to Canada on a student visa. A year later, he released his first rap single called “So High”, followed quickly by two back-to-back albums.
For most of his six years as a performing artiste, one of Moosewala’s primary motifs were guns. His social media handles often showed him carrying weapons, or in the company of armed men. At one point, the logo of his YouTube channel showed a man dressed in black carrying an AK-47 assault rifle.
The singer first ran afoul of the law in February 2020 when he was booked under sections 509 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 294 (reciting obscene songs) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Mansa for allegedly promoting gun culture through a song titled Panj Golian (five bullets). After he got bail, Moosewala released a song called “Sanju”, taking pride in the cases registered against him under the Arms Act, comparing himself with actor Sanjay Dutt, who had been charged over the illegal possession of an assault rifle.
The police then registered another case against Moosewala under the Arms Act and relevant sections of the IPC in July 2020 for glorifying the use of weapons and boasting about the FIRs.
It wasn’t just Moosewala though. In 2020, the teaser of a movie called Shooter was released, allegedly glorifying the life of gangster Sukha Kahlwan, a man with more than 48 cases against him including murder, extortion, and criminal intimidation. The film was later banned.
Moosewala was controversy’s favourite child, but there was no denying his popularity, so much so that when the Congress hunted for a candidate for the Mansa assembly constituency, his home district, they landed on him. There were murmurs of outrage, pointing to his provocative music, but afforded a meeting with Rahul Gandhi himself, Moosewala fought the elections on a Congress ticket, losing to AAP’s Vijay Singla, ironically the man removed by the Bhagwant Mann government on charges of corruption.
Protection, money and gangsters
But if Moosewala’s music, and that of other artistes, brought an unprecedented, almost cult-like, popularity, it has also brought an influx of money, which has meant the involvement of criminals.
Senior Punjab police officials, involved in operations against organised crime, said the flow of wealth from dubious sources, and extortion, has only increased. The intelligence wing of Punjab police, for instance, has gathered details about 12 cases in the past three months where ransom was paid by singers in the name of protection money. The Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and the Lawrence Bishnoi gangs are among those that lead this racket, police said.
“In certain cases, it has been found that certain persons linked with these gangs receive money from singers in the form of ‘hawala’ abroad as well,” a senior police official said.
Another senior officer with the Anti- Gangster Task Force (AGTF), constituted by CM Mann, said singers get routine extortion calls from gangsters. “Many singers don’t even report such calls and pay up. Those who hesitate get death threats,” the officer said.
The first case of attack for ransom emerged in 2018 when gangster Dilpreet Dahan allegedly attacked producer and singer Parmish Verma in Mohali on April 13. Verma received a bullet injury in the attack, for which Dahan was arrested.
A few days later, singer and film producer Gippy Grewal also received a call for ransom of ₹10 lakh from the Dahan gang, after which the matter was reported to the police. “Sometimes singers and producers relent and ask us not to name them as complainants in the media,” a DSP said, requesting anonymity. In fact, on March 24, singer Mankirat Aulakh, reached out to CM Mann, citing threat from gangsters, and asking for protection.
Moosewala and his rivalries
But Aulakh has himself had his fair share of controversies, not least his famed rivalry with
Moosewala. When Vicky Middukhera was killed on August 7, 2021, by a group of gangsters, Moosewala’s former secretary Shubhamdeep Singh was named as accused by the police. He fled to Australia. Aulakh said that Middukhera was “akin to a brother”, and soon after the killing, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang announced that it would avenge his death.
On Monday, another gang, headed by Davinder Bambiha alleged that Aulakh was involved in the death of Moosewala. In a Facebook post on Sunday, the gang alleged that Aulakh extorted money from singers in the music industry. While Aulakh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts, he condemned Moosewala’s killing on social media.
In October 2021, the Mohali police alleged that it was the Bambiha gang that claimed responsibility for the murder of Middukhera, but also alleged that they believed the gang had entered the music industry, and had invested in two music companies. Former DGP Shashikant said that the gangsters have now adopted a model akin to the Mumbai underworld, sensing the money involved in the music and film industry. “It is the industry itself that is responsible for this menace. They have glorified this culture to the extent that it has started becoming counterproductive,” the retired IPS officer said.
Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and former home minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said Moosewala was given security cover during their party’s rule in Punjab as the intelligence bureau (IB) had shared specific inputs about the threat to his life and that of former DGP Punjab Sumedh Singh Saini.
In his recent TV interviews, Moosewala termed the security withdrawal as an attempt by the AAP government to get mileage.
Jailed but free
Moosewala’s assassination has also renewed focus on criminal activities in Punjab being controlled from within jails across India. Lawrence Bishnoi for instance is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. On Monday, authorities conducted searches in the cells of Bishnoi and his accomplice Shahrukh, reportedly seizing “prohibited items”, a day after the murder. The Delhi police also questioned Bishnoi’s key accomplices, Kala Jathedi and Kala Rana, also in police custody in separate cases.
Of 700 known members of the 80-odd organised gangs that are active in Punjab according to the state police’s records, 350 are currently lodged in jails across the country, including Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, Neeta Deol, Dilpreet Baba Jaggu. Last week, a mobile phone was recovered from Jagdish Singh Bhola, accused of running an organised drug racket, from his person in a Patiala jail. “In the recent past, many heinous crimes, murders, extortion rackets have direct links with gangsters lodged inside the prisons. We have thus far been unable to control it, as there is no proper monitoring,” a jail official in Punjab admitted.
However, experts of the music industry trace the roots of the violence back to the music itself, and the glorification of “macho culture”. Renowned music director Atul Sharma said, “The culture, particularly in rural Punjab, has always glorified bandits from Dullah Bhatti, Jagga Daku, or Jat Jeuna Maur.”
Filmmaker Daljit Ami, director of the Educational Multimedia Research Centre, said: “The daredevil culture that we see along with the rise of guns and popular music has always been an intrinsic part of the culture. In Punjab, one of the eternal heroes is Mirza who is still remembered for saying, ‘ Meri bakki ton daran farishte, Mere kolon khuda darda’ (Angels are scared of my mare, and God is scared of me).”