International Kabaddi player murder: 14 months later, North India Kabaddi body chief arrested

Senior Superintendent of Police, Jalandhar rural police, Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar told The Indian Express that Chatha has been arrested under Section 120 (B) (Punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Further investigation is on, Bhullar added. Police took him on one day police remand.

After Sandhu’s murder, Chatha, who has been associated with kabaddi tournaments for the past five decades, had said that he was in a state of shock. He had held a press conference a day after the murder, halting all ongoing kabaddi tournaments in the state for a day.

Sandhu was among the world’s top five kabaddi players and the head of the Major Kabaddi League Federation, which organises tournaments in Punjab and abroad. He had represented the UK team as captain in various Kabaddi World Cup tournaments organised by the Punjab government. He also ran a team – the Shahkot Lions.

Sandhu hailed from Nangal Ambian village in Jalandhar’s Shahkot but was settled in the United Kingdom with his wife and two sons.
Known as a gladiator among his fans, Sandhu’s murder had shaken the entire kabaddi world. The Punjab Police have arrested nine people in the murder case, including an ex-serviceman, a woman and two shooters.

The police had cracked the murder case on March 19 last year with the arrest of four main conspirators – identified as Sangrur resident Fateh Singh alias Yuvraj, Kaushal Chaudhary of Naharpur Roopa in Gurgaon, Amit Dagar of Maheshpur Palvan village in Haryana, and Simranjeet Singh alias Jujhar Singh, a gangster from UP’s Madhopur Pilibhit village. All four are history sheeters with over 20 criminal cases in their name – mostly of murder and attempt to murder – and were brought on production warrants from different jails.

The police also named three people they said were the main conspirators in Sandhu’s murder: Snover Dhillon, a native of Amritsar residing in Ontario, Canada who is a producer-director at Canadian Sath TV and Radio Show; Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukha Duneke alias Sukh Singh, a native of Duneke village in Moga who is residing in Canada for last few years; and Jagjit Singh alias Gandhi, a native of Dehlon, Ludhiana residing in Malaysia.

During interrogation, Fateh Singh allegedly revealed that Dhillon had tried to convince different players to join National Kabaddi Federation and Fateh also allegedly confessed that following instructions from Dhillon, he, Amit Dagar, Kaushal Chaudhary, Jagjit Singh, Lucky Patiyal and Sukha Duneke had arranged shooters to murder Sandhu.

Sandhu always used to raise the matter of ‘Clean Kabaddi’ and keep it free from ‘drugs’ which was not acceptable to those who had several vested interests under the guise of Kabaddi tournaments in India and abroad.