New Delhi: Punjab gangster Sukhdool Singh or Sukha Duneke has been killed in Canada over inter-gang rivalry, reports have said, though an official confirmation is awaited.
Reports suggest the Khalistani separatist – originally from Moga – was killed Wednesday night in Winnipeg, Canada.
According to a report, Duneke fled to Canada on forged papers in 2017 as the police closed in on him. He is wanted in at least seven criminal cases in Punjab.
#WATCH | Punjab | Visuals from the residence of gangster Sukhdool Singh in Moga. Reports have been coming in that he has been killed in Winnipeg, Canada in a gang land shooting but official confirmation is yet to come in.
Earlier today, raids against gangsters and Khalistani… pic.twitter.com/2cRp0SW4IV
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2023
Two Punjab cops were booked last June for allegedly helping Duneke get a passport to flee the country.
Hours after the murder, jailed Punjabi gangster Lawrence Bishnoi claimed responsibility for the hit. Bishnoi is currently in Ahmedabad for drug smuggling and is also an accused in the murder case of singer Sidhu Moosewala.
In a FaceBook post Thursday, the Bishnoi gang implicated Duneke in the murders of Gurlal Brar, Vicky Middhukhera and Sandeep Nangal. The gang said Duneke was “a drug addict” and was punished for his sins. The gangster warned his enemies that he would hunt them down wherever they were– whether in India or abroad.
The news of Duneke’s death comes in the middle of a raging diplomatic row between the two countries, triggered by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation this week that Indian agents were potentially responsible for the murder of Canadian citizen and separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar, 45, was shot dead by masked gunmen in front of a Sikh temple on 18 June in the outskirts of Vancouver.
Canada expelled an Indian intelligence officer as a “consequence”. India rejected this allegation as “motivated and absurd”, and retaliated by throwing out a senior Canadian diplomat from New Delhi.
The Ministry of External Affairs also released an advisory for Indian citizens and students in that country to exercise “utmost caution”.
The ministry warned Indian nationals there about the “growing anti-national activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence in Canada”.
Also read: US ‘deeply concerned’, says India should cooperate with Canada’s probe into Nijjar’s killing