Punjab Police sent Goldy Brar’s exact location, Canada didn’t act

Goldy Brar, one of Punjab’s ‘category-A’ gangsters and the prime accused in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, has become a subject of renewed interest, particularly as Canada has been giving contradictory signals on his whereabouts.

After Moosewala’s murder in May 2022, the Punjab Police claimed to have, through the Government of India, shared Goldy’s “pinpointed location” in Canada, but the security agencies there “didn’t give any encouraging response”.

Punjab Police officials have now questioned Canada’s double standards on the matter. They said Canada, on the one hand, had removed Goldy from their “most wanted list” and on the other was accusing him and his aide Lawrence Bishnoi of being involved in the killing of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey in June 2023. A section of officials believe that Goldy could be in the “safe custody” of some Canadian agency or any other group in that country.

India’s former High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Verma, too, has questioned Ottawa’s role in the Goldy case. In an interview to a news agency on Thursday, Verma confirmed that Goldy was in Canada. “Goldy Brar was living in Canada. On our request, he was put on the wanted list. All of a sudden, he disappeared from the list. What do I make out of it? Either he is arrested or he is no longer wanted,” Verma said.

Verma said India had shared the names of Goldy and Bishnoi with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. “So, it’s not that Canada or the Canadian authorities woke up from their dreams and said, ‘here is Bishnoi and here is Brar’. It was an Indian agency that told them about these two gangsters,” the diplomat said.

Punjab Police officials too have supported Verma’s claims. Wishing not to be identified, officials privy to the Moosewala murder investigation and Goldy’s criminal life said the gangster was allegedly on a video call with Sandeep, alias Kekra, taking live notes about the singer’s movement from his house, minutes before he was murdered on May 29. The Punjab Police had traced the IP address of the video call to Canada and shared it with the authorities there. They also informed Canada about the details of the student visa on which Goldy had entered the country on March 17, 2017.

A police official said, “After Moosewala’s murder, we provided all details about Goldy to Canada. It’s a fact he landed there on a study visa using his real passport number. If he left Canada for any other country, the Canadian authorities should be able to find it out.”