The sixth shooter in the Sidhu Moosewala killing, who was arrested from the India-Nepal border a day ago, had plans to flee the country, Punjab Police chief Gaurav Yadav said Sunday.
The Delhi Police had earlier arrested three shooters and the Punjab Police had killed two others in an encounter.
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The sixth shooter, Deepak Mundi, and two of his associates were arrested on Saturday from the West Bengal-Nepal border in a joint operation with the Delhi Police and central agencies. The two associates — Kapil Pandit and Rajinder — have been accused of providing logistic support and weapons to the shooters.
"The Punjab Police has made three arrests on Saturday in connection with Shubhdeep Singh murder case in a joint operation with central agencies and the Delhi Police," Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav told reporters in Chandigarh.
Twenty-three arrests have been made so far in the case. A total of 35 accused are named in the case, he said.
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Accused, Sachin Bishnoi had been earlier detained in Azerbaijan. There is information that another accused is being pursued, the Punjab Police chief said.
Preliminary interrogation of the three accused arrested on Saturday revealed that Rajinder was stationed in Nepal earlier and he was in touch with Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, the mastermind in the case. Brar was also the mastermind of their escape plan, Mr. Yadav said.
Sharing details of their escape plan, DGP said, "Mundi and Kapil Pandit had reached West Bengal shifting their base from Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. They planned to reach Dubai through Nepal using fake passports."
He said the alternate plan was to reach Thailand through land route via Nepal and Bhutan or if fake passports were delivered to them in Nepal, they would take a flight to Bangkok and later reach Dubai.
"Kapil Pandit's interrogation revealed that he was approached by Lawrence Bishnoi through Sampat Nehra and Goldy Brar to target (Bollywood actor) Salman Khan. Along with Sachin Bishnoi and Santosh Yadav, they had made elaborate recce and they spent a lot of time in Mumbai. During investigations, we will verify this angle too," he said.
A day after the Punjab police had pruned his security cover on a temporary basis, Moosewala was killed in Mansa on May 29 when he along with his friend and cousin was travelling in a jeep to Jawahar Ke village.
His vehicle was waylaid and bullets were sprayed on him by six shooters. Goldy Brar, who is a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, had claimed the responsibility for the murder.
Brar had executed the plan to murder Moosewala to avenge the killing of Vicky Middukhera.
Youth Akali leader Vicky Middukhera was killed last year. The name of Shaganpreet Singh, said to be Moosewala's manager, had figured in the killing of Middukhera.
