How a college drop-out became a gangster wanted across borders
Six years ago, Satinderjeet Singh alias Goldy Brar, currently one of the most-wanted gangsters in Punjab who was arrested in the United States on Friday, was a college drop-out who had clashed with the law a few times.
But soon after he moved to Canada in 2019, ostensibly to study (he was on a student visa), he embraced the underworld, and started running extortion rackets and taking up contract killing assignments. Now, a many as 50 cases including murder, attempt to murder, extortion have been registered against him in various districts, police said.
A resident of Mukstar in the Malwa belt of Punjab, Brar is a son of a former policeman. In 2012, when he was 18 years old, Brar was booked under section 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others) in a case involving clash between two groups. But he was acquitted in the case.
A Punjab Police official said Goldy Brar was booked four times before he moved to Canada. “In 2015, he was booked for murder in Muktsar but again secured acquittal after an out-of-court settlement. Later, two more cases were registered against him in Fazilka district.”
Another police official who prepared the documents to secure red corner notice against Brar said there was no pending inquiry against him when he moved to Canada, so he was able to secure police clearance. A red corner notice, usually issued through Interpol, is a request to police departments around the world to apprehend a person pending extradition.
Brar may have been a known name in Punjab – from the safety of Canada, home to a significant Punjabi population, he extorted money from businessmen in the state, and carried out contract killings – but he was relatively unknown across the rest of the country.
That changed this year after he claimed responsibility for the sensational May 29 killing of rap singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moosewala, in Mansa district. According to the 1,850page charge sheet filed in the Moosewala murder case, Goldy Brar was the mastermind behind the killing. Brar gave the news of the withdrawal of security of Moosewala to shooters on May 28 and had asked them to hurry up and kill the singer on May 29, as per the charge sheet. The security to the singer was withdrawn by the AAP government soon after it came to power.
Another gangster, Lawrence Bishnoi was also involved in the killing. Bishnoi was in Delhi’s Tihar jail at the time of the killing, although he is believed to have been running an extortion racket from jail. He is currently under National Investigation Agency (NIA) remand. Brar knew Lawrence Bishnoi through his cousin Gurlal Brar, a former state president of Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU).
Gurlal was killed in 2020 and Brar joined hands with Bishnoi to avenge his killing.
Police claim Brar managed to kill Faridkot Youth Congress president Gurlal Singh Bhullar alias Pehalwan to avenge his cousin’s killing. Bhullar was shot dead by two bike-borne
assailants in Faridkot city in 2020; Brar took responsibility for the killing on Facebook. The June red corner notice issued by Interpol was in connection with this case.
Brar claimed that he got Moosewala killed to avenge the death another student leader Vicky Middukhera. He and Bishnoi were convinced that one of Moosewala’s old associates had a role in Middukhera’s killing, claim the police.
On November 10, a Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep Singh Kataria, who was an accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case was killed on the directions of Brar, the police add. They have invoked Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act against Goldy Brar in this case.
Pardeep was an accused in two cases of sacrilege registered in 2015 after a ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village and later when torn pages of a ‘bir’ were found scattered near a gurdwara. The sacrilege incidents led to protests across the state and resulted in two incidents of police firing at Kotkapura and
Behbal Kalan in which two people were killed.
Goldy Brar’s father Shamsher Singh was an ASI in Muktsar police who took premature retirement in 2021. People familiar with the matter said he was pressured by senior police officials to t retire because of his son’s criminal activities and conviction in a murder case. On March 9, 2021, the police in Kotkapura arrested Shamsher Singh for his alleged role in an extortion racket. The FIR alleged Goldy Brar was the kingpin of the extortion racket, but Singh used to carry out reconnaissance of potential victims and pass on the information to his son in Canada.
Brar used Whatsapp calls or text messages for extortion, the police added. In a 2021 case, he made an extortion call to a chemist, who owned a shop in Kotkapura, and demanded ₹25 lakh. In another case, in July 2021, Brar threatened to kill a Kotkapura-based garments shop owner and demanded ₹50 lakh. Faridkot police questioned gangster Bishnoia about this case in August this year.
“Goldy managed to collect crores of money from businessmen after Moosewala’s killing. He hires people for contract killings using his links with the Lawrence gang. Like in the Dera follower murder case, he hired two juveniles from Haryana for the killing,” a senior official from the state’s anti-gangster task force said, asking not to be identified.
Intelligence officials have claimed that Brar has connections with Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-services Intelligence and that his illegal entry from Canada to United States was facilitated by it.
Brar’s family still lives in Adesh Nagar on Kotkapuramuktsar Road.