World Of Secrets - The Killing Call: 2. Four and a half hours

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Have you heard? Sidhu Moose Wala is dead. Social media is on fire across India – fans feel like they have lost a family member, the grief is overwhelming. The lyrics of his song The Last Ride sound like a deadly prophecy. Did Sidhu know danger was closing in? Then just hours after the killing there’s a shocking claim. Presented by broadcaster and DJ Bobby Friction and investigative journalist Ishleen Kaur.Season 8 of World of Secrets, The Killing Call, is a BBC Eye investigation for the BBC World Service. Archive audio credits: India Today, Times Now, Dunya News, NDTV, CTV, Bijender SharmaHere’s a link to the BBC Eye two-part documentary films, which we recommend you watch after listening to this podcast: https://bit.ly/thekillingcall If you are in the UK, you can watch on iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002f18y

I'm in Morocco on holiday with my family. I'm sitting by a turquoise pool in my swimming trunks and I'm just starting to doze off when my phone, which my wife has asked me Unfortunate news that's coming in right now. Sidhu Moosewala, who is... News report. Indian Punjab's Makbul Kulkarno... He could not survive that attack. Over 30 bullets were... News reports, tweets, messages all begin pouring in. And I hear my wife say, Bobby, log off, turn that phone off.

This is supposed to be family time. But it's too late. Then I get this anxious feeling. Sidhu Moosewala has got Punjab's hopes and fears running through his blood. What's going to happen now in India and in Canada, in Britain? How are we Punjabis going to react? This was a deadly attack clearly intended to ensure

that Sidhu Moosewala is killed. That right there is the video of the black jeep Sidhu Moosewala is killed. That right there is the video of the black jeep Sidhu Moosewala was driving. I'm at home in London. I'm on maternity leave, and I've just put my three-month-old baby down for a nap. And then I see a tweet on my phone. It says, Sidhu Moosewala's been shot.

I look down at my watch. It's 5.45 in the evening in India. Right then, at that very moment, my brother calls from Canada. He's just woken up, he's a massive Sidhu Mooseyala fan, my whole family is. Together we watch rolling updates online. When it's clear that Sidhu's dead, my brother struggles to speak. He hangs up. But there's something nagging at me. it's online, when it's clear that Sidhu is dead, my brother struggles to speak. He hangs up.

But there's something nagging at me. For months now, there've been rumors that Sidhu is mixing with the wrong people, that he's too outspoken, that he's upsetting powerful figures. The first question I have though, is the same that everyone has. What just happened?

And then more phones start ringing. I knew his voice. I knew that it was him calling. This is World of Secrets Season 8. The Killing Call, a BBC World Service investigation. I am investigative journalist Ishleen Kaur. And I'm broadcaster and DJ Bobby Friction. Episode 2, 4 and a half hours. Punjab was on the boil that day. That whole night people were gathering at his house

in Musa village. Thousands of people, media, you know, so many were coming. It really shook the core in you that this is a murder which Punjab will not forget. Crime reporter Jupin Dijit Singh isn't meant to be working that day. He's in downtown Chandigarh, Punjab's capital. I remember that day, it was my off day. One of the very rare days when I could go out with family. We were watching a movie when I got this message from one of our reporters of the Punjabi Tribune.

He was calling me and then I saw his message, Siddhu Mushewalad Act. Jupinder Jit rushes from the cinema and calls back the reporter who's at the scene. He's based in Mansa. So he said that Sidhu Mushewala, he has been attacked and there were more than half a dozen gunmen. There were two cars, you know, all this sketchy information. Japindajit gets into his car and heads straight for the office. On his way, he calls his editor.

He stops briefly to file a couple of paragraphs for the office. On his way, he calls his editor. He stops briefly to file a couple of paragraphs for the website. As he drives, he's taking deep breaths to try to help the news sink in. Sidhu Musiala is one of Punjab's most famous sons. Then, Japinderjeet starts calling his contacts in the police. So then I check with the senior officials here, check with the anti-gangster task force, his contacts in the police. to see a young life, you know, who has made Punjabi singing so popular.

True, he was part of several controversies, but to be murdered like this, close to his house, was really shocking, even for a crime reporter like me. Jupinder Jit is a handsome man in his early 50s, with thick black glasses and a close cropped moustache and beard. He works at The Tribune, one of the oldest English language newspapers in India, and he's covered crime in Punjab for 25 years.

Arriving at the big modernist block that houses the newspaper's offices, Chappindarjeet runs inside. By now, it's gone six in the evening. The newsroom is buzzing. Reporters are working the phones, a bank of televisions blaring out the news. The air conditioning is working overtime in the late May heat. You know, it was madness.

What went through your mind? What were your first thoughts when you had heard that Sidhu was killed? The first was, oh my God, what has happened? And why Sidhu Musewala? The first response is always a journalistic response to the situation. How has that happened? Who was involved? What is the police saying?

Like, you know, mentally we were so occupied with that. And you know, there was one thought that if you live by gun, you die by gun also. Because Sidhu Musaywala was involved in controversy on gun violence, on gangsterism, on culture. But maybe he was talking about guns, but he was a peaceful guy as far as we knew, you know. And if Sidhu Musaywala is not on the scene, then who's going to benefit, you know? That question is big. So those kind of thoughts we had.

Japindajit has had a feeling for a while now that something is brewing. There'd been protests, a new political party had just swept to power in the state elections, and not long ago, a very famous player of one of Punjab's favourite sports, the fast-paced contact game Kabaddi, had been shot during a match and killed.

You see, there was something was going on in Punjab for specifically in the last six months or so. There was the farmers' agitation. There was a political flux in Punjab. The new government had taken over. And, you know, there's always this flux in Punjab. The new government had taken over. And you know, there's always this fear in Punjab that it may go back to the dark days of terrorism. Punjab is India's only Sikh majority state and endured years of violence in the 80s and

90s. Nine people are killed in new riots around the holy city of Amritsar. The Indian government has sealed off the state of Punjab and thrown... The army launched a massive attack during the night using armoured vehicles. That was more than three decades ago, but people's memories are still strong of the government using soldiers against Sikh separatists. The Battle of the Golden Temple has been hard fought and costly...

The world mourns Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, assassinated by two Sikh members of her own body. Mrs Gandhi has been succeeded as Prime Minister. So as a reporter, you were feeling some kind of tension was always there. Then it really sink in that, you know, he was not just a new subject, he was something else. As a journalist who has been writing about Punjab and who has some kind of sensitivity about the situation in Punjab knows that this can lead Punjab to anywhere. A popular Punjabi rapper whose music videos have been viewed by millions around the world

has been shot dead by a gang in India. News of Sidhu Mooseala's death is spreading around the world. His bribe is one of India's most forceful music exports. The famous Canadian entertainer has offered condolences. Fellow rapper Drake shared this photo of the 28th. The global superstar Drake puts the picture of Sidhu and his mum on Instagram. Underneath the words, rest in peace, Moose. Creative but controversial.

Seen here with best-selling UK rapper, Stefan Dime. Sidhu's old college friend Pushpadeep was sleeping when the news came through. And when I woke up, someone told me that Sidhu is no more. sleeping when the news came through. and the video. At that point, I felt my body numb and I literally got goosebumps in my body and I started crying. The music producer Big Bird, who created those early big hits with Sidhu over four years ago, also wakes up to the news. I think it was about maybe 6.30 or 7 in the morning. I received like a few calls from my dad, so I started getting worried. I'm like, OK, my dad never calls me this early in the morning. So when I answered, my dad told me like Sidhu passed away and my heart stopped.

I was like in disbelief. It was kind of like an earthquake and everybody felt it. People that didn't even know him or ever met him. But they also felt like they lost a family member. Like that's how much he was like a household name. As he struggles to take in what's happened, Big Bird's mind goes back to something Siddhu once said to him. He shivers thinking about it now.

I think it was like after we shot a music video. Me and him went for like a walk around the street. And we were just talking and he said just out of nowhere, he's like, bro, you know, like when I die, I'm going to die by bullets. And then I turned to him and I said, like, what are you talking about? Why are you saying this? Like, what's going on? He's like, bro, trust me, I know. And I was like, bro, listen, just stop. Like, don't say that.

And just to put the two and two together, it was just like mind blown. I was like, there's no way, like, how is this possible? It's only two weeks since Sindhu Musiala dropped a new track. It's called The Last Ride and it's eerily similar to what happened to Sidhu. The picture on the cover is the car in which Sidhu's idol, the rapper Tupac Shakur, was shot dead 26 years ago. and one of the first images in the video is a funeral hearse. The glow on the young man's face, Sidhu sings, shows his funeral takes place in his youth, and chillingly, their days in the world are numbered. In the end, their fame becomes their enemy.

The track is a eulogy to Sidhu's hero, but listening to it that day, it does feel like a premonition, like Sidhu's predicting his own death. It's now 9.30 in the evening and journalists are starting to arrive from across India. Four and a half hours after Sidhu Musiala left his house for that final journey, the head of the Punjab police calls a press conference. Reporters cram into the large room at Police HQ, waiting for VK Bhavra, the Director General of Punjab Police.

Finally he arrives. He's neatly dressed, has a silver moustache and a lot of medal ribbons on his khaki uniform. Flanked by two of his officers, he sits down in front of a table full of microphones. He's an experienced investigator, but this is a huge case, one of the biggest murders in Indian Punjab for almost 30 years. The room falls silent. His manner is businesslike, understated. But his message isn't. We know who did it, he says.

And we know why. Case closed? Within minutes of the shooting of Sidhu Musiala, another police team is also on the case. I was at my house and around 5.30 I got a call from the SSP Mansa. Police officer Gurmeet Singh Chauhan from the Organized Crime Unit is called by a senior colleague. So he informed me the attack has taken place on Sudh Mosewala. And my first question was, is he alive? Is he OK? The superintendent tells him he's only just hurt himself.

He's on his way to the hospital. Gurmit Johan then rings his boss, the head of the Organized Crime Investigation Unit, for instructions. He gave us some directions which we right away started implementing, like getting the borders sealed, interstate checkpoints set up, alert across the state, basic precautions. And since we already knew that he is an important person, it's going to be a very sensational thing. So right from the word, when we got to know, we knew that it is an important investigation that we are going to get into.

These first hours will be crucial. They need to stop the gunmen from escaping and secure vital evidence like the weapons used in the attack. Lots of people in Punjab have guns and weapons flow across borders. Gurmeet and his team send out an internal police alert. That is the protocol for any district police. That's what they do. So the control room is alerted and your neighbouring police stations,, neighboring districts, we share it with them, the type of vehicles, number of persons, kind of persons.

And then of course, the police goes on the ground, gathering facts. So immediately the first lead that we got was that within an hour or so, we got to know that there were two vehicles which were used. And one of the vehicles was found abandoned about two kilometres away from the scene of crime. Using the registration number of the abandoned car, police immediately start trying to trace the vehicle's owner. But these things take time.

Before receiving that call from his superior that day, Gurmit Chauhan had his own history with Sidhu Mooseala. Seven months earlier, the two men had met when Gurmit was in charge of overseeing police protection for public figures. Gurmit had received a tip-off from his colleagues elsewhere in India, and they had told him that there was a credible threat to Sidhu Mooseala's life. At this point, Gormeet switches to Hindi, so an actor is voicing the rest of what he says. We were getting information from various sources

after talking about it with senior officers. I called Sidhu Musawalla and asked him to come into the office. We briefed him on what we knew and told him, you must be very careful. You shouldn't go out without security. Always have security with you. And here are some other do's and don'ts. Because you know Punjab has a history of these target killings.

Sidhu was sitting there in the police station with his father and a friend. They looked a bit shocked. And they said, is there anything specific? And I had to say no. We can't say anything for sure. Intelligence is like that. But it doesn't mean it's wrong.

And we just guided them on what to do to stay safe. The main advice police officer Gurmeet Chauhan had for Sidhu was, don't leave your house without bodyguards. So those are our pictures from earlier this evening in Mansa, moments before the attack on him. But now, seven months later, Gurmeet learns, on this day that Sidhu Musiala was killed. He'd left his house to visit his aunt with a friend and a cousin without any security at all.

Security is kept, he had two gunmen. And he had two security guards at home, but they couldn't all fit in the SUV. So Sidhu told them to follow in another jeep. But when they looked at the jeep, they realized there was really low pressure in the tyres. They were flat. So, Sidhu said to the security guys,

don't worry, it's okay, you stay here. We are not going far. I'll go on my own. Did the killers know Sidhu Mooseyala was going out that day without his bodyguards? Had they been watching? Had they been staking out Sidhu's house? Or was it just chance that they struck this day of all days? Sidhu Bhai, we want you! We do know one thing, that something else happened. Something that was out of Sidhu

Mosewala's control. The murder of the popular Punjabi singer just a day after his security cover was reduced sparks anger in him. One day before the shooting, the new state government in Punjab posted on one of its social media accounts. They're proudly announcing they're fulfilling a key election promise. The post reads, The Aam Aadmi Party continues its war on VIP culture. State security of around 400 people in Punjab, VIPs, has been reduced. And one of those VIPs named in the social media post is Sidhu Musiala.

As news of this spreads, protests begin. People are angry. They shout, death to the government, down with the government, long live Sidhu. A huge crowd has been gathering outside the hospital ever since news broke of Sidhu's death. Amongst them, briefly, are Sidhu's parents. THEY SPEAK IN HINDI Sidhu's mum and dad outside the hospital.

Sidhu's mum screaming and shouting and jabbing her finger, talking to the cameras. THEY SPEAK IN HINDI She puts her hands up in the air, and at some point she says, why don't you kill us, like take us away as well. Yeah, it's like the moment she stops shouting, her face almost collapses into pure grief.

It's almost like swinging wildly between anger and then the worst kind of grief. And then you've got Sidhu's dad, who's almost trying to calm his wife down. Look, at that point, he puts his arms on her and she pushes his arms off, but then he's also really emotional. He's just raising his fist in the air, but I think he's struggling for words here.

He looks absolutely broken. That night, it feels like the whole of India, the whole of the Punjabi diaspora is online sharing their shock and their grief. A stream of questions but no answers. Then around 6.30 a message drops on social media. It's from a man calling himself Goldie Brar. He's claiming to be a member of a Punjabi gang. His message starts Ram Ram, Lord Lord, which is a Hindu greeting. Then Satsri Akal, which translates to God is truth and it's how Sikhs greet each other.

Then he goes on to claim responsibility for the biggest killing in Punjab for decades. I, Gowdi Bra along with, and here he lists other names in the Punjabi gang he says he's part of, take responsibility for the hit on Sidhu Moosealan. A few minutes later, on the other side of the world, in Canada, a phone rings. I was speaking to my wife. She was just sitting beside me.

It was a Sunday. So I was speaking to her and got a call. It's the phone of Ritesh Lekhi, a reporter specializing in Punjabi organized crime. And it was a missed call from a number that was not known to me. And I just called back. The guy picked up and he was like,

there was some kind of lack of breath, an agitation in that voice. And then he says, I just want you to report the right facts and tell the world that I have killed Sidhu Moosewala. For a moment, Ritesh thinks he's misheard. So I thought that he was saying or meaning something else. So I said, okay. I asked him, do you get him killed? So he said, yes, I got him killed.

And that was in Punjabi, of course. And that was the time when I had to actually stand up from the couch that I was sitting on. Ritesh recognizes the voice. He's spoken to him before. He's the man who's just gone online claiming responsibility for Sidhu's murder. Goldie Brar.

I had spoken to Goldie Brar twice before that. I knew his voice. I knew to a reasonable extent that it was him calling. But it was not even my wildest of dreams that they could go to that extent and hit Sidhu Moosewala. And then I did ask him, what was the weapon used? Because I was getting the reports from the media and he said that, yes, we have got him killed with an AK-47 and a.45 bore weapon, because these were his favorite weapons.

So at least he deserved this much of respect that he should get killed with the weapons he loved and he cherished. It was shocking, very shocking. Immediately, Ritesh puts out a message on social media about what Goldie Bra has just told him. Less than 30 minutes later, Ritesh's phone rings again. This time, it's the head of the Anti-Gangster Task Force in Punjab, Kermit Johan's boss. The anti-gangster task force head did corroborate,

saying that, okay, we also believe that this must be their handiwork. It is possible that they have done it. We believe what he's saying. It's not long after that, 10,000 kilometres away in Punjab's capital, that neatly dressed man with a silver moustache and a khaki uniform sits down in front of a table full of microphones. Flanked by two of his officers,

the head of Punjab police, VK Bhavra, is about to address a packed room full of reporters. The room falls silent. He tells them, we know who murdered Sidhu Mooseala. It's an electric moment. Journalist Chappindajit Singh remembers the stampede as his colleagues rush back to the newsroom. Jindarjeet Singh remembers the stampede as his colleagues rush back to the newsroom. He did not take much questions. He just said that he was shot at and he has been killed.

And he announced that the murder is a result of a gang rivalry. Were people surprised that, oh, gangs in Punjab have killed Sidhu Moosewala? Or was it people like, of course, had to be the gangs. No, people responded very angrily to the police claims that it is gang rivalry. People did not buy it. There was so much of backlash, even government was not happy.

You know, to kill someone like Sidhu Moosewala as an international icon, it was shock and disbelief and anger at police claim on that day. Why were people so angry and upset? He has huge fan following, you know. And without arresting anyone, the DGP of Punjab police goes public with his claim that this is gang rivalry. You can't make this claim without you arrest someone. And police has dismissed it as a result of a gang war, which

means that you are casting aspersions at the victim also. So that was the questions, you know, we were asking ourselves. I mean, Sidhu Musewala's murder can't be just an open and shut case. What no one in that press conference knew was that earlier that evening, there had been another call. Just an hour after Sidhu Musiala was killed, a phone rings in a high-security prison in the capital Delhi. The call is later leaked to the media. The caller sounds impatient. He asks to speak to one of the prisoners. Put him on the line, he says, it's important. The prisoner comes onto the phone,

and the voice tells him, we killed the Sikh. What? Says the prisoner. What did you do? We killed the Sikh. We killed Musiala. You've killed him? The prisoner says. Yes, says the caller. We've killed him.

Okay, comes the answer. Cut the call. This prisoner is no ordinary prisoner. That's next time on World of Secrets. After Sidhu Musiala's murder, the Chief Minister of Punjab vowed to leave no stone unturned to bring those responsible to justice. And he ordered an inquiry into the decision to reduce Sidhu Musiala's security. His office said in order to fix responsibility. We asked the Punjab state government about the outcome of the inquiry and for any further

comment. They have not responded. This has been Episode 2 of 5 of The Killing Call, Season 8 of World of Secrets from the BBC World Service. The Killing Call is a BBC Eye production. If you're new to World of Secrets, there are seven previous seasons and they're available for you to listen to right now. World of Secrets, The Killing Call

is presented by me, Ishleen Kaur. And me, Bobby Friction. It's produced by Louise Hidalgo, Rob Wilson and Eamonn Kwaja with script advice from Matt Willis. Sound designer Mix is by Tom Brignol and the executive producer is Rebecca Henschke. The editor is Daniel Adamson and the BBC iSeries producer is Ankur Jain. Original music by Ashish Zakaria. Fact checking is by Curtis Gallant.

Additional research by Ajit Sarati and Arvind Chhabra. The production manager is Dawn MacDonald. And the production coordinator is Katie Morrison. Many thanks to the BBC World Service Commissioning team that's behind World of Secrets. And thank you for listening.