After the proactive stance of Delhi police in singer Sidhu Moosewala murder case, Maharashtra police held a press conference on Monday regarding important arrests made by their team in relation with high profile murder, in which Punjab police hands are almost empty after more than two weeks. Punjab Police is not comfortable with the interest shown, especially by Delhi police, into Sidhu Moosewala murder case. Recently Delhi and Punjab Police had a face-off over Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Bagga. Delhi Police, in coordination with Haryana police, had foiled the attempt of Punjab Police to arrest Bagga and brought him to Punjab in a case registered against him for making inflammatory statements against Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal. However, it was not first time that such a thing has taken place. Punjab Police wanted then Dubai-based gangster Sukhmeet Pal Singh alias Sukh Bhikharipur in more than 10 cases, including murder of Shaurya Chakra recipient Balwinder Sandhu in October 2020. Bhikharipur was on the run since 2015. Bhikharipur had come on Delhi police radar for first time after an alleged shootout with five criminals - three from Kashmir and two from Punjab - on December 7, 2020. Two of the accused arrested by Delhi police after shootout were Sukhdeep Singh alias Sukha and Gurjeet Singh alias Bha, both according to Punjab police, had killed Balwinder Singh Sandhu on instructions of Bhikharipur, who is allegedly the main conspirator in the murder case. Delhi police managed to deport Bhikharipur from Dubai within a month and also accused him for having links with Khalistani militants. After which NIA took over the Balwainder Sandhu murder case from Punjab police and registered case under UAPA. Since then, Delhi police investigation has overlapped with that of Punjab Police on several occasions. A senior Punjab Police official said, “They are not showing arrest in the case. They are arresting accused in their own case and securing remand of accused and then questioning them in Sidhu Moosewala murder case. Even if they have arrested someone and then came to know about their involvement in crime committed in another state, ideally they should inform police of the concerned police and not through press conference.” When asked if the delay in getting remand of the accused would affect the investigation of Punjab Police in Moosewala case, he said, “Somewhere it would affect information. But we have better coordination with Maharashtra police. Our team had went their when shooter Mahakal was arrested. Even today, their DG has underlined that they are working in close coordination with Punjab police,” he said.
