Lawrence Bishnoi, the leader of a gang which has claimed responsibility for the murder of Punjabi singer and Congress leader Sidhu Moose Wala, on Monday has moved Delhi's Patiala House Court in a bid to stop the Punjab Police from taking him with them.
In his petition, Bishnoi said he should not be handed over to the Punjab Police because he fears he would be killed in an "encounter".
However, the court refused to entertain his plea.
Currently, Bishnoi is serving time in Delhi's Tihar Jail in an organised crime case under the stringent MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act).
Meanwhile, Punjab Police has already contacted top officials of the Delhi Police to seek information about members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and Kala Jathedi and Kala Rana who are currently lodged in jails, sources told news agency ANI.
Sources also said Punjab Police can also take Bishnoi gang members into their custody and interrogate them in connection with the murder case of Sidhu Moose Wala.
According to ANI sources, the murder plot of Moose Wala is suspected to have been hatched in Delhi's Tihar Jail, as a phone number in connection with the singer's killing has been tracked back to the jail.
A few days ago, a criminal namely Shahrukh was arrested by Delhi Police. He was found to be using a messaging app to communicate from jail with Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, who has claimed responsibility for the murder of the singer.
Since Brar is a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, the Delhi Police Special Cell, suspecting the involvement of the gang, is questioning gangster Bishnoi and his aides Kala Jathedi and Kala Rana in connection with Moose Wala's murder.
Punjab Police had also said that the attack on Moose Wala seemed to be due to an inter-gang war.
Earlier today, Delhi Police said that it suspected that the murder of Moose Wala could be a result of the killing last year of Vikramjit alias Vicky Middukhera.
According to the Delhi police special cell, names of Moose Wala and his manager, Shaganpreet came up in connection with the murder of Vicky in August last year.
Special Cell of Delhi Police recently became aware of the nexus of notorious gangsters Neeraj Bawania and Tillu Tajpuria. Bawania and Tajpuria had teamed up with different gangsters Kaushal Chaudhary, Davinder Bhambia, and Lucky Patial from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Delhi Police had arrested about a dozen miscreants of this five-member gang in connection with the murder of Vicky. Those arrested were identified as sharpshooter Sajjan Singh alias Bholu, Anil Kumar alias Lath and Ajay Kumar alias Sunny Kaushal. During interrogation, the arrested trio had talked about the alleged involvement of Moose Wala and his manager in the Vicky murder case. Moose Wala's manager was named as the accused in the FIR registered in this case.
As per reports, Vicky was a close friend of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi who is serving time in jail in Bharatpur, Rajasthan since 2017 for various crimes.
In a post on his purported Facebook page, Bishnoi's aide gangster Goldy Brar has taken responsibility for the murder of singer Moose Wala.
(With ANI inputs)
