World Of Secrets - The Killing Call: 5. The last ride

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Sidhu predicted he would die young and by the bullet. Sidhu’s song The Last Ride plays like a premonition. In his final days the death threats intensify and Sidhu is increasingly isolated. We find out who benefited from his murder and how it’s changed Punjab - making it a more dangerous place. Can we finally get answers to why Sidhu was killed? 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: First India News, India Today, CBC, CPAC, Al Jazeera, WION, Republic World.Here’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

Before we begin the final episode of this season of World of Secrets, I've got some good news. There are more seasons of World of Secrets coming very soon. In fact, we're hoping the next one will be along in just a few weeks. So if you haven't already, follow or subscribe so you get all seasons and all episodes automatically. And whilst you're waiting for the next season, if you're new to World of Secrets, there are seven previous seasons available right now. On a busy street in the city of Mansa, near to where Sidhu Musiala grew up, there's a row of shops. In the city of Mansa, near to where Sidhu Musiala grew up, there's a row of shops. Some shops are selling English language and visa services to young Indian Punjabis wanting to emigrate.

Others are selling guns. This is Boss Guns Arms and Ammunition Shop. And the owner Chetan Mehta was Sidhu Musiala's gun dealer. This is a.32 bore pistol. Pull the magazine. This is empty magazine. Chetan says Sidhu loved guns. This is a load pistol without ammo. Most Punjabis say they need one for security.

And it was the same for Sidhu. But for him, guns were also a passion. And it's a passion that's got him into trouble. Like the time he's filmed at a shooting range firing an AK-47 rifle. Ordinary citizens aren't allowed to use AK-47s. Sidhu was called in by the police but not charged. It was classic Sidhu, Chetan says. Whenever he saw a weapon, he just had to try it. You can see the emotion in his face when he remembers Sidhu's last months.

There was a sense, Chetan says, that anything could happen. He tells a story I can't get out of my mind. He's gone to visit Sidhu and his father at home in their village Moosa. They're always welcoming, he says, always open to visitors. It's harvest season. Siddhu's out in the field driving the tractor and Siddhu's father is sitting in a jeep by the side of the field watching his son, protecting him in his hand, a revolver. Three months before he's killed, in February 2022, Siddhu Mooseala does something that again surprises people. He enters politics. Sidhu stands in Punjab's state elections. He's a candidate for the Congress party, the

oldest political party in India, which is then in power in Punjab. But Sidhu loses by a lot, as Congress does across the state. Sidhu's friend Manjinder says he went into politics because he wanted to do good. He was always talking about bringing development to his home district, building roads, improving things like cancer care. But Sidhu also saw politics as protection. Sidhu was a guest in power. If he had been a member of parliament, no one in this country would have dared kill him. Manjinder, were you worried for Sidhu?

Yes, definitely. He had a few people with him. Manjinder, were you worried for Siddhu? Yes, definitely. Yeah, we definitely were. There were always four or five armed security guards around him. Also his uncle, his father and a couple of friends. When the threat started getting worse, we said you've got to put up security cameras. So you can see who's coming to the house. And the family did it.

And I remember we used to pull tractor trailers across the road. You know the tractor trailers they used to carry crops? We filled them with sand and put them across the road to block access to the house. Because you know, we were worried. And he was our target. And we were right. What we feared, it came true. This is World of Secrets, Season 8.

The Killing Call, a BBC World Service investigation. I'm broadcaster and DJ Bobby Friction. And I'm investigative journalist Ishleen Kaur. Episode 5 The Last Ride. Hi, Aisling. It's me Goldie Brad. Not long after getting that voice message, I am getting your message from around the ear now. Goldie Brad calls me. The voice is firm, controlled, with a distinct Punjabi accent. It's the same voice as in the message, the same voice that spoke to Canada-based journalist Ritesh Lakhi.

We've made other checks too. He sends me photographs of him with Laurence Pishnoi, with politician Vicky Mitukhera, photographs we can't find anywhere on the internet. We can't know for sure, of course, but I'm convinced he is who he says he is. Ishleen presses Goldie Bra to let us film an interview, but he won't do it. He says he'll only talk to us over the phone, and he gives us a time, 11 o'clock on Friday morning, in two days.

OK, so to prepare, I want to go through what we know about the events of the day Siddhu was killed on May 29, 2022. What the police investigations found, who's been arrested, who's still on the run. There were six gunmen. Four of them have been arrested, two were killed. But no one has been convicted yet for the murder of Sidhu Mooseala. I remember what Police Officer Gurmeet Chauhan, who was part of the investigation right from that first day, told us. Two of the main shooters were neutralised in a police action. 29 odd arrests have taken place.

The process is still on, so we'll wait for the verdict. Two of those were later killed in a fight in jail. There have been arrests as far away as Azerbaijan and the United States. You can say it's a global kind of conspiracy. It was a very big challenge. It was a huge challenge to put the pieces together and solve this puzzle.

A trial process has started. Among those charged with Sidhu Mooseala's murder is the gang leader, Lawrence Bishnoi, still in a high-security jail in India. And then, of course, there's Goldie Braar. Goldie Braar is one of the most important persons. The man who's claimed responsibility for the murder. But he's not in custody. An international warrant is out for his arrest. We think he's

somewhere in North America, where he was living before Sidhu's murder. But Goldie Bra could be anywhere. Quite soon into the investigation, police made public CCTV footage from the day Sidhu died. News just coming in India today has accessed images from just moments before that cold-blooded murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala.

In the footage, you can see Sidhu's black Jeep travelling through a village on his way to see his aunt and then a white car pulling out and following him. Police have given us access to other CCTV footage from outside Sidhu Mooseala's house before he leaves on their last journey. You can see fans hanging around outside the house, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, or probably even better, just try and get a selfie.

Veteran crime reporter Japindajit Singh has watched the CCTV from that day over and over. He's since written a book about Sidhu's murder. Japindajit, can you explain exactly what we see in that CCTV footage? You can see there were, I think, two angles. One angle, some fans are seen taking selfies with him and he's conversing with them also. Then there was a little closer CCTV in which, you know, there is this guy whose back is seen and who is making a video. And later on it was learnt that this guy was one of the gang members of Loris Bishnoi and he was beaming all this video live to...

He was on a video call with Goldie Braar. So Goldie Braar was literally watching as Sidhu left his house that day. Sidhu's official security had recently been reduced. That day he had two state security guards but he went out without them. He had a bulletproof car but he didn't take it. It seems there was something wrong with one of the tires. So Goldie Brown knew that Sidhu Mooseala was going out without any protection. out without any protection. It's time to speak to the person who is on the other end of that video call.

Goldie Braar. Okay, we're in a recording studio in central London. It's a small, airless room. With me is my producer, a laptop, recording equipment, a table and two chairs. The rest of the team are next door. While we wait for the call, I check my notes, looking through what we know about Goldie Bra. He was born Satindajit Singh, nine months after Sidhu. He's now 31. His father worked for Punjab police and in 2017 Goldie Braw went to Canada on a student visa. The minutes tick by. He said 20 minutes. It's been 22 minutes now, so we're expecting a call any moment.

It's been a very long wait for this day. Finally. Hello? Almost immediately, we start having connection issues. Oh, it says reconnecting. Great. OK. immediately we start having connection issues. Oh, it says reconnecting. Great. Okay. Phone rings.

Hello? Can you hear me? I can hardly hear what he's saying. The audio is quite bad because the way it works is there are four to five phones connected so he calls from one phone and the other phone and then that's how I can speak to him so the voice quality is not good. It's not working so we agree we'll do the interview using voice notes.

This is going to take ages because he's going to listen to my voice note and then he's going to record his answer, send me the voice note, I'll have to listen to the voice note and based on that ask him the next question and my list is unending anyway. I'm not going to muck around because I don't know how much time I have with him so I'm going to come in hard and ask him who ordered the hit on Sidhu Moosewala. First of all, I want to ask you who ordered the killing of Sidhu Moosewala? And then I wait 11 long minutes. When it comes, his answer starts with why, not who. Hi ma'am, it wasn't a random execution. It was because of the things that he did, the people he was mixing with, he was associating

with like our enemies. They were the people involved in the murders of our brothers. By brothers, he's talking about the youth politician Vicky Medukhera, who mediated between Sidhu and Lawrence Bishnoi after that Kabaddi match, and his own cousin, Gurlal Brar, who was killed the year before Vicky. Lawrence and Gurlal were very close. They had known each other since school. There was no reason to kill him.

Then Goldie Braa claims, Sidhu was somehow complicit in Vicky Midukhera's murder. Everyone knew his role. The police knew, even the journalists who were investigating Vicky's case knew. Even the journalist who were investigating Vicky's case knew. Sidhu's personal manager sheltered the shooters who were involved in Vicky's murder. They used Sidhu's manager's Facebook ID to browse through Vicky's profile and to get his pictures. Before Sidhu was killed, Vicky's brother pleaded in front of many journalists and the police asking for justice for his brother and asking for Sidhu to be investigated. The police have told us there's no evidence that Sidhu Mooseala was himself involved in any

way in Vicky's killing. But his friend and manager Shuganpreet is wanted by Punjab police in connection with the murder. He's denied any involvement. But Goldie Bra says Sidhu did have questions to answer. He, the political power of the Paisa. He was using his political power, his money, his resources to help our rivals, those who killed our brothers. We had no option but to kill him. When decency falls on deaf ears, it is the gunshot that gets heard.

It was either him or us, as simple as that. it is the gunshot that gets heard. So he's sticking to the gang rivalry story, he's sticking to the revenge story, but it's all very vague. He still hasn't given us evidence of how Sidhu was involved in those particular deaths. Sidhu is involved in those particular deaths. I've actually now asked him, what evidence does he have? Everyone in our brotherhood knew what Sidhu was up to. We had spoken about it among ourselves.

And we concluded that he was supporting our rivals, going against us. He had to be killed. There was no other solution for him. It's strange in a way because he's trying to justify killing someone. I really want to find out how he thinks he can just take law in his own hands and that's fine and that's fair. We are in India. In India we have a judicial system. hands and that's fine and that's fair. Ishleen, these things only sound good on paper. Law, justice, there is no such thing. Only the powerful can expect justice, not ordinary people like us.

Siddhu had connections. He was famous. He had money. That's why people talk about justice for Siddhu Moosewala. If he was an ordinary person like our brothers and he had been murdered, no one would have cared. Then I asked Oldie Bra, what was the role of Lawrence Bishnoi, the leader of the Bishnoi gang, who was in jail then and still is. Yes madam, we are the brothers of Lawrence. Madam the thing is that Lawrence is like an older brother to me. At that time Lawrence

was being kept in isolation. He did not have access to a mobile phone. So my brothers and I, we fulfilled our responsibility. But police documents we've seen say that Goldie Bra did coordinate with Lawrence Pishnoy to plan the murder. There's a lot to take in, a lot to challenge. But I don't know how much time we're going to have. He could decide at any moment. He's had enough. Goldie keeps repeating that Sidhu had a lot of influence and he was making a lot of money and he had become egoistic

because of the power, money, and influence. So was it actually just about Sidhu's power and the influence he had? I press Goldie Pras. Where's the killing about creating fear? To feed a family of four, a man has to struggle all his life. We have to look after hundreds, even thousands of people who are like family to us.

He means gang members and their families. to us. He means gang members and their families. We have to pay for their legal fees. Just for food in prison, we have to pay a hundred, two hundred thousand rupees per person. There is so much corruption. There isn't a policeman who can't be bought. It's not easy to run a group like this, especially when it's spread across different countries. We have to extort money to keep the show running. Sometimes we have to do nasty things. It doesn't matter good or bad. You have to do what you have to do. And we do it for money, yes. But also to show authority, to exert influence. At the beginning, his voice was quite impassive.

There was no emotion. But now I'm starting to hear flashes of irritation when I question him. when I question him. Why didn't you go after them? Like when I ask why they targeted Sidhu rather than the people police say were involved in the murders of Vicky Medikera and Goldie's cousin. His answer is chilling. Madam, you still have incomplete homework.

Madam, I do think your homework might not be complete. It's not that we have brokered a compromise with them or forgiven them. They have all called and apologized and they begged for their lives. But we haven't forgiven anyone and we will never forgive. Either we will live or they will. They might be hiding anywhere in the world. Our chance will come. I keep pressing him.

Does he have any remorse for what he's done? I am struggling. I am wanted in different countries. I did what I had to do for my brother. I have no remorse whatsoever. I take pride in it. If I'm wrong, then let God punish me. But I feel that I can live in peace knowing I did something for my brother.

Okay, one last, I promise, this is the last one because you don't answer it. So, Goldie is getting really tired now. He's just texted me saying this is going to be the final question. We've been voice messaging each other for over six hours now. But I feel to understand how is he still on the run? And that's going to be my last question for him today. After 20 minutes of waiting, it's clear. I'm not going to get an answer. Yeah, I guess he got tired of my questions. But I've asked him some really tough questions. I asked him, what is this about? Are you trying to exert more power and influence in the world of crime? And he said, actually, you have to do it once you become a part of this world. And that's what his life looks like now.

So I walked out of the building onto a noisy London street just off Oxford Circus. I'm surrounded by shoppers and tourists and buses. And these last six hours feel unreal. I've just been speaking to a man wanted for murder in India who's somewhere on the run. In his eyes killing is justified, almost something to be proud of. And then a few weeks after Ishleen's conversation with Goldie Bra, there's a dramatic announcement from Canada. There's a dramatic announcement from Canada. Tonight on CBC Vancouver News. Explosive allegations. The RCMP alleges serious criminal activity in Canada

is linked to agents of the Indian government. On October the 14th, 2024, the Canadian Federal Police, the RCMP, hold a press conference. We reached a point where we felt it was imperative to confront the Government of India and inform the public about some very serious findings that have been uncovered through our investigations. The year before, a Sikh separatist leader, Hardeeb Singh Nijad, had been killed in British Columbia, and Canada accused the Indian government of involvement. Now Canadian police are accusing agents of the Indian government of being involved in

other violent acts in Canada. In homicides, extortions and other criminal acts of violence. Right from the start, the Indian government has vigorously denied all the Canadian allegations. They say Canada has provided India with no evidence and accused it of pandering to its large Sikh community. What's significant for our investigation is that now Canadian police are going further and are saying these agents of the Indian government are using organized crime groups. What we've seen is the use of organized crime elements.

And they name one group. It's been publicly attributed and claimed by one organized crime group in particular, which is the Bishnoi group. The Lawrence Bishnoi gang. And we believe that that group is connected to agents of the government of India. India has again firmly denied the allegations, saying it's urged Canada to act against the Bishnoi gang and provided names of individuals to be arrested, and that Canada hasn't acted. Regardless of the claims, one thing is certain. Today, Lawrence Bishnoi is one of the most

feared gang leaders in India. And now, his name is being splashed across international headlines. This is him, Lawrence Bishnoi. The infamous gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his gun is suspected to be behind the killing. Bishnoi is a former law student turned law breaker. And in India, since Sidhu Musiala's killing, news report after news report suggests the

Bishnoi gang is getting bolder and bolder. News that's coming in, prominent Mumbai politician shot dead, Baba Siddiqui was shot at. That the probable motive for the Lawrence Bishnoi gangster being linked to the killing was to establish his criminal influence in Mumbai. Meanwhile, and I witnessed… If they can kill a rapper as famous as Sidhu Mooseala or a politician like Baba Siddiqui, no one is safe. It's like Sidhu Mooseala warned in some of his songs that gangsters have taken

his fame and turned it into their notoriety. I remember that on the day that Sidhu Musiala was killed, the Tribune journalist Chappindajit Singh said the first question he and other journalists had was who benefits from Sidhu Musiala's murder? The man who spoke to Goldie Brar on the night Sidhu died, Ritesh Lucky, is in no doubt. It's the Bishnoi gang and Goldie Brar who have benefited. The capacity of the gangsters to extort more money has increased more so Goldie Brar. His extortion calls have been there.

Many of them have been made public also by the people who have been his victims. He is getting huge sums of money after killing Sidhu Moosewala. And it's not just Goldie Brar. I've been told other gangsters, other people are also profiting. Because as we know, where there's fear, there's money. Back in Sidhu's village, Moosa, his friend, the writer Manjinder Maka, recalls what happened to someone who he knows. This friend went to the police after getting an extortion call. And as he was coming out of the police station, where he had gone to report it, he got another

call and the caller said, why have you gone to the police station? So it feels like they were watching. They knew what was going on. Some callers are even pretending to be Goldie Braar. I got this fake call saying give us three million rupees or we'll kill your son, we'll kill your brother. And he told me I am Goldie Brar and I know what you do for a living and he did know quite a lot.

He knew my brother's name, where I worked and he he built up the fear, you know, so I'd pay the money. The calls went on for seven or eight days, and in the end I went to the police and they did their job. And we found out it was this 19-year-old boy. Manjinder decided not to press charges. Being jailed, he says, would have condemned this young boy to a life of crime. Young people are getting influenced by these gangsters,

by the gun culture in Punjab, by singers who sing these kind of songs. They want to be gangsters too, and they want a certain lifestyle, but they don't realize how things could end up for them. So Bobby, let's just go over what we found through the investigation. What struck me most was how scared people were to talk about this, to talk about Sidhu, even to talk about the music, the lyrics he wrote, and to talk about gangsters. And Chandigarh, becoming this beautiful place, is an idea that I can't seem to understand.

It's a city, in Punjabi we used to say, a city of Hari Jharnia De Chittidania, which means green fields and old people. And that's the Chandigarh, that's the Punjab I have grown up in. But each time that I went back, I realised it changed. The last time when I went and visited family, I was staying with family friends, they wouldn't let me out of the house without an armed guard. The easy availability of weapons blew my mind. Everywhere you went, cafes, stores, to buy a bottle

of water, I saw people having pistols in their pockets. There have been attacks in police stations and this is something I remember reading in newspapers back in the 90s, you know, when Punjab was still under the cloud of terrorism or militancy. You know, they say if past is prelude, it's almost setting the context for more turbulent times. The other thing that is very different for me is people themselves. I remember when Punjabi music turned from Bhangra into Punjabi hip-hop. And then when the lyrics turned from looking backwards through misty eyes into looking around you with scared eyes. And I kind of had this feeling, oh my God,

they're aping American hip hop because it's not that violent out there. They don't need guns. This is a pastiche of hip hop. And bit by bit, I realized this isn't a pastiche of hip hop. They're living their own violent times. And that was a real wake up call for me. So by the time Sidhu came around,

I remember listening to his lyrics very carefully because I realized it wasn't just poetry, it was like the best hip hop lyrics about their real life. lyrics about their real life. I think we have nailed down the reasons that Sidhu was killed. Power, first and foremost. People feared what Sidhu would become, not only what he was today, but what he would become. And when you become that powerful, it's easy to make enemies everywhere. Sidhu had made too many enemies.

Because Sidhu never backed down, he defied his enemies. He stood up to them. His enemies didn't like that. Ultimately, Sidhu was a problem to quite a few different groups. And I think for them, he was a problem that needed to be dealt with. Sidhu's old friend Pushpadeep, who he went to college with, recently got married. He's now living in Canada, driving trucks long distance, like so many young Punjabi immigrants. He still misses Sidhu, he says.

He still can't listen to some of his songs. Still now, today, like people love to enjoy his song Last Ride. Even on the ceremonies and all that stuff. But what happens with me is I get too much nostalgic listening to that song. The words that he has used in his song, like he has literally described his death. And even in the past songs, if we pull all the stuff together, if we check all the facts that everything that he uttered, even a single word out of his mouth has become reality, how is that even possible?

I want to know why Peshpadeep thinks that on the day he died, Sidhu went out without the two security guards. When he knew his life was under threat. He was carrying all that weight on his mind, all that stress. And Sidhu was kind of a free bird and you cannot put him in a cage. He was an eagle. He could not live a life in confinement or something like that. Even if he was getting those threats, he loved to eat out and he loved to go into the farms

and he used to do all the stuff that he loved from the core of his heart. You did say that if Sidhu had not been so bold, He might have been alive. Yeah, maybe we could say that because the society, they don't like people being bold. The people that speak too much truth, they do face consequences. That's been part of the history.

His parents are crying every day, and they are waiting for the justice. Because like Punjab, India is a collectivist society, and still people share justice for Sidhu Moosey Alapos every day, but the justice is delayed. But we will make sure that nobody ever forgets that there was a guy named Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu. Because for people it is Sidhu Mooseyala, but for me it's Shubhdeep Singh. And I loved the guy. I loved my brother Shubhdeep.

This is an interview that Sidhu Mursiala gave in September 2017, a month after his first hit, So High. He's 24 years old, living in Canada, and he's on the cusp of becoming massive. The interviewer asks him about some lyrics he's written for his hero, the rapper, Tupac. He starts to sing. ["So High"] I don't ask God for much. My only desire is that my name should echo after I'm gone. He stops. That's all I've written so far. Winning awards is not that important to me. If I end up only

singing for a short time, that's okay. What I want though is that if I die tomorrow, people will remember that someone came, someone was here and they left a mark. In March last year, the parents of Sidhu Musiala, aught to give him his real name, Shubdeep Singh Sidhu. This has been episode 505 of The Killing Call, season 8 of World of Secrets from the BBC World Service. The Killing Call is a BBC Eye production. We hope you've enjoyed listening. Do post about World of Secrets on social media and tell people you know. Leave us a rating or a review if you can, it really helps. 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 Eamon 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 i-series producer is Ankur Jain. Original music by Ashish Zakariya. 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. If you enjoyed listening, you might want to watch our two-part BBC Eye documentary films too. You'll find the links in the show notes.