New Delhi: Long before being arrested by the Sri Muktsar Sahib district police, the parents of fugitive gangster and terrorist Satinderjeet Singh alias Goldy Brar were under the police scanner for allegedly helping their son run an extortion racket from abroad.
The Brar family had found themselves on the wrong side of law, as the gangster’s father, Shamsher Singh, a former assistant sub-inspector (ASI), was forced into retirement in 2021.
This was after the Punjab Police found out his alleged role in helping Brar, who was then based in Canada’s Brampton. Singh was arrested by the Faridkot district police in March 2021 and is currently out on bail in this case of extortion. The trial in the case is currently underway.
Singh and his wife Preetpal Kaur, residents of Sri Muktsar Sahib, were Monday arrested in connection with an extortion case from December 2024. The couple was produced Tuesday before the district court, which sent them to police custody till Friday, Muktsar Sahib Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Abhimanyu Rana told ThePrint.
Believed to have fled to the US, Brar was declared an individual terrorist by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in January 2024. Brar, according to a gazette notification, was involved in multiple killings and then posting his role on social media as well as making ransom calls.
The gangster faced four cases by the time he left the country in 2017 on a student visa. Brar gained notoriety after he allegedly masterminded the killing of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh alias Sidhu Moosewala in 2022.
The arrest of Brar’s parents comes amidst a statewide campaign of the Punjab Police against the foot soldiers of the foreign-based gangsters, running their syndicates in the border state. As part of the ‘Gangstran Te Vaar’ campaign, the police have so far arrested more than 2,000 suspects linked to 61 such foreign-based gangsters.
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‘Supplying info on potential targets’
The latest case in which Brar’s parents were implicated was lodged in December 2024 based on the complaint of a staff of the Punjab education department, who allegedly received a ransom call demanding Rs 50 lakh.
“I was present at the school on my duty when an unknown person called me from my mobile from a foreign mobile number through WhatsApp and said that I am speaking from Bambiha Group and asked if I was Satnam Singh. The unknown person said that if you don’t give me Rs 50 lakh, then you will not remain fine. I know everything about your entire family very well, and I also know your house and the one on Kotkapura Road,” the police complaint reads.
The complainant approached the local police station after receiving another set of calls days later, leading to the registration of an FIR under Section 308 (4) (extortion) and 351 (1) and 351 (3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita that deal with offences amounting to criminal intimidation.
Although the complainant alleged the role of the Bambiha group, considered to be arch-rivals of Lawrence Bishnoi-Brar’s syndicate, sources in the Punjab Police insisted that these gangs worked in “coordination” around the time the case was registered. Brar is said to have split from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Shamsher Singh, meanwhile, was first arrested on 7 March 2021 in another case of extortion registered by the Faridkot district police on the complaint of a medical store owner in Kotkapura.
In this case, the Faridkot district police arrested Singh on the charge of supplying information about potential targets to his son for extortion calls. In its probe, the Punjab Police is said to have traced an audio recording of ransom calls made through WhatsApp to targets.
The rogue ASI, according to the police, had formed an organised group, including Brar and Lawrene Bishnoi, and that he was collating information related to potential targets and then passing on their contact details to his Canada-based fugitive son.
Singh walked out of jail on 7 May 2021, as the police failed to file a charge sheet against him within 60 days. The charge sheet was eventually filed three days later, and the trial is currently underway in the case.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Canada publicised adding Goldy Brar to ‘most wanted’ list in 2023, then quietly dropped him yr later