Nia arrests vikramjeet singh close aide of jailed gangster lawrence bishnoi

Nia arrests vikramjeet singh close aide of jailed gangster lawrence bishnoi

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested Vikramjeet Singh alias Vikram Brar, a close aide of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi upon his deportation from the UAE. Vikramjeet Singh had been making extortion calls for the gang from the UAE.

Brar is an accused in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala last year and was wanted in NIA cases related to the gangster-terrorist-smuggler nexus. Besides targeted killings of innocent people including businessmen, he is allegedly involved in cases of smuggling of weapons and extortion in India with the help of dreaded gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar and others.

Absconding since 2020, Brar was wanted in at least 11 cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion and had been charged under various sections of IPC as well as the Arms Act. 11 lookout notices had been issued against him by competent authority on request by various state police including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi police.

Brar was operating as a ‘communications control room’ (CCR) for the Lawrence Bishnoi terror gang from the UAE. This CCR was also facilitating calls of Lawrence Bishnoi and Canada-based Goldy Brar and further upon their directions, he used to make extortion calls to various people. Brar’s CCR also enabled calls of main gang leaders with the operatives/ members.

Brar is the sixth ‘wanted’ absconder to be deported or extradited to India by the NIA, in close coordination with the central intelligence agencies and with persistent follow-up with the concerned authorities in their countries of residence. Among the foreign-based accused who are now in NIA custody are Bikramjit Singh @ Bikkar Panjwar @ Bikkar Baba, the mastermind of Tarn Taran bomb blasts, who was successfully extradited from Austria in December 2022. Prior to this, the only other extradition since the setting-up of the NIA was that of Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich @ Willy in December 2015 from Thailand.

The other 4 deported accused — Kulwinderjit Singh @ Khanpuria of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Harpreet Singh @ Happy Malaysia, Parminder Pal Singh @ Bobby and Aboobacker Haji — were wanted for commission of serious and sensational crimes, such as the Ludhiana Court Complex blast case etc.

Brar had actively helped Goldy Brar in executing the killing of Moosewala. Lawrence Bishnoi had also transferred the extorted money many times to Brar through hawala channels. Brar had demanded extortion money from a doctor in Kurukshetra (Haryana) and also threatened him.

Before becoming an associate of Bishnoi, Brar was linked to Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) in Punjab University. Along with other associates, he actively participated in various crimes like murder, attempt to murder and extortions etc.

NIA has so far arrested 16 persons in the terror-gangster conspiracy case.