The Killing Call, Ep 1: Sidhu Moose Wala and the Murder that Shook India - BBC World Service Docs

CHANTING: Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! When I first started to play Sidhu Moose Wala I remember just being entranced. "Who is this guy?!" He's a bad boy lyricist. He's an amazing performer. And he is none other than Sidhu Moose Wala! CHEERING He really broke through the barrier of the Western world and it really helped the music to grow. As soon as the politics came in, as soon as he started singing about life in the pind, but also the culture of power in India, I suddenly realised, "Wow, this guy is "the nearest thing we have to a modern-day poet." You know, he was a revolutionary. He spoke truth to power. These were things that people were scared to talk about in Punjab. But he had become fearless. He crammed 50 years of life into those five years. Have you ever seen anyone live so fast? Sidhu was like a storm. A storm doesn’t last long. But, when it comes, it shakes everyone. If you’re so rebellious, the world will not let you live. MULTIPLE PEOPLE SHOUTING Is it Sidhu Moose Wala? - It’s him. Get him out! Get him out! Someone get some water. Did they kill him? - No, he’s alive. Call an ambulance. I said, “It must be fake news, I spoke with him just five hours ago.” This is the biggest killing that has happened in the last few decades in Punjab. Sidhu Moose Wala's death has changed an entire paradigm. Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar admitting that he’s the one who ordered the hit on Sidhu Moose Wala. According to Punjab police, this is said to be a case of personal enmity, and the Lawrence Bishnoi gang is involved in the case. Goldy Brar is one of the most important people in this case who is still absconding. You can say it’s a global kind of conspiracy. There was never any mystery around who killed Sidhu Moose Wala. The mystery was about why. But the problem is no-one wants to talk about it. In Sidhu's case, people are afraid. No-one wants to speak up because it involves gangsters. So why are you investigating this? Because I'm a journalist. Because I'm Punjabi. And because, for such a high profile killing, there's almost like a wall of silence around the case. The facts are not out in the open. There’s too much hearsay, too many rumours coming in. There is an atmosphere of fear. Yes, people are afraid. But journalists can't hide from stories because of fear. We protect our sources. We've hidden identities. But Sidhu's story, it matters. Please don’t do this documentary. It’s going to create a lot of problems. Please don’t talk about gangsters. I’m really scared. I come from a village that didn’t even have a bus. It’s a very backward region. Today, you might think I have a great life, but I started from nothing. If I’ve risen up from that crowd I worked hard for it. For others, he was Sidhu Moose Wala, but for us, he was Shubhdeep. But the time we spent together back in college, those were really precious days for us. SINGING I used to treat him like my big brother, as he was in the year above me. We are both from Mansa district in Punjab, so our way of talking was quite similar. For me, my village is almost like heaven. I wanted that wherever I go. Wherever Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu goes, the name of the village Moosa travels with him. This is why I call myself Sidhu Moose Wala. Sidhu had a bike. I would drive and he sat at the back. If I tried to talk to him, he would ask me not to talk. He’d say he was working on a song. I started singing while I was in school. In fifth grade, I used to sing vaar [Punjabi folk songs]. I sang in folk song competitions. He was passionate about music. It was his heart’s desire to make it big. Then he got stubborn about it. I pray to the Lord with all my heart. I pray to the Lord with all my heart. My love, I pray for your wellbeing. I pray for your wellbeing. I pray for your wellbeing. I pray for your wellbeing. May the Lord give you my life. May the Lord give you my life. My love, I pray for your wellbeing. I pray for your wellbeing. I pray for your wellbeing. I pray for your wellbeing. Before he started writing his own songs, he approached a songwriter for lyrics. I was begging him for lyrics for a song. I went to his village. It was raining heavily, the bus stop had no roof. He told me to go home because it was raining. The writer kind of humiliated him. He was angry about this. I stood there in the pouring rain, crying. This wasn’t right. I swore to myself never to sing anything written by someone else. I might make it or I might fail, but I will write my own songs. He was nobody back then, but he already carried himself with the Moose Wala attitude. Shubhdeep knew from day one the character of Sidhu Moose Wala he wanted to create. Look happy! CHUCKLING You’re walking too fast, give me a chance to catch you. You can walk now. We shot three music videos. Come on, boys, enter the frame! They came in wrong. CHATTERING We had a lot of fun on these shoots, even though we were absolute amateurs. All he wanted to do was become an artist. But no-one valued him there. I always told him, “Something big will happen in your life.” I’d tell him to not give up because everything will turn out great for him. The chances are, if you're leaving the pind - which, you know, is the rural areas of the Punjab - you're going to go where the other immigrants are. And if you go to Toronto, and you want to find the South Asians, and especially the Punjabis, you go to Brampton. Sidhu’s parents wanted him to go to Canada, so he could pursue an education. At the time, there was a trend amongst Punjabi youth to move to Canada for better opportunities. Let me introduce you to this man. Sidhu Moose Wala. Sidhu and I knew each other from India. We were good friends, even then, but we became close in Canada. We used to get together in the evening, hang out in cars. When we got together in the evening, Sidhu used to sing his songs. Hi friends, I’m Sidhu Moose Wala. New song Cadillac coming up. I wrote this song and everyone’s out here to support me. SINGING: With my car windows down, I cruise through my town. With my car windows down, I cruise through my town. Those who talk about me behind my back are now silent. She rides on the road, making everyone jealous, my black Cadillac. Brampton is the de facto capital of Punjabi music from the diaspora, and I think even more so Punjabi rap music, which is essentially Punjabi music that's got an element of fusion applied to it. Brampton is the motherlode. And it didn't take much time for Sidhu Moose Wala to cross paths with one of the biggest producers on the Canadian scene. Sidhu Moose Wala! Deep Jandu! I did a song with Deep [Jandu]. I wrote it and sang it, and it got leaked. It was great, even though it leaked, it was a huge hit. All my friends started to say, “You should make a video.” Can you sing a couple of lines? It goes like... Sweetheart, I come from the village where the descendants of Khabbi Khan live, where the families of the fearless live. They cut their bread with swords, sweetheart. The place where children are wise. They achieve whatever they set their sights on. The whole world is witness to this. We kill first and explain later. That’s the village I come from. We kill first and explain later. That’s the village I come from. That's where I belong. Looking back when Sidhu Moose Wala emerged, all you had coming out of the Punjab, it was still so traditional. CHEERING It was Byg Byrd who I think lit the touchpaper underneath him. He actually reached out to me on Facebook and, fairly quickly, you know, the next day, he was at the studio. And that's where it all kind of began. The first song, which was So High, Uchiyan Ne Gallan, we got that done in, like, 1-2 days, so he didn't really give me a direction per se, but he all he said was, he's like, "Hey, bro, like, I want to make this sound like an anthem." I had Sidhu come back in, a few days later, to actually, like, listen to the song, like, in person and, like, his reaction was just, like, speechless. Like, he was, like, surprised or like... He was like... You know, he was like, "Holy." Like, "What is this?" The synchronicity around Sidhu Moose Wala and Byg Byrd was absolutely amazing, because Byg Byrd was just coming through, really making proper international quality hip-hop. And who was his first protege? Sidhu Moose Wala. Sidhu Moose Wala. There’s a new song coming and it’s a bomb. After making So High... ..we called Sidhu back to the studio and then, right away, Sidhu just started... Like, in his mind, I could see his mind just going crazy. Like, he'd already started writing in his head, like, everything he was going to... You know, like, he was such, like, a genius when it came to lyrics. He had the hook already and he was already writing the verses and I'm like, "Holy!" Like, "OK, we're on to something now, right?" So High was the track that broke through not just Canada, but the UK and India, too. The first song, the second song, the third song did really well. We started getting, like, shows, like, offers for shows, like, in Montreal or Vancouver. Sidhu Moose Wala! People were going crazy. Like, "Who is this guy? "Who is this Sidhu guy?" Like, you know what I mean? Like... He's a bad boy lyricist. He's an amazing performer. And he is none other than Sidhu Moose Wala! The first time I saw Sidhu, I related to it so much, because, like him, I think I'm also from two cultures where I'm like very rooted but then I love hip-hop. He was wearing his turban and he had, like, this gangster - I think it was like a jersey. His swag, you know, I was just like, you know, the thing that we all wanted, this fusion, it has happened. It's finally here. When Sidhu Moose Wala came forth, the average Punjabi fan said, "Who is this guy? What madness is this?" Yo, this is the emergence of the Canadian voice now. Little did I know that, actually, he was even bigger than just being a Canadian voice. REVVING Yo, yo, yo! So you think we’ve made it? For sure. No-one knew Sidhu was going to be this big this fast - this pind boy, the village boy, to a global megastar in the space of a few months. Maybe even Sidhu wasn't prepared for how hard it was going to be. When you're nothing, no-one is around you. But when you start becoming bigger, you know, start getting hit songs, then ten people start joining you, then 20 people start joining you. "Hey, you know, you're so good!" But they're all fake people. But your crew starts to get bigger, you know? Sidhu’s social circle grew fast. When he arrived somewhere, there would be 50 cars, a whole entourage. At the start of his career, Sidhu was managed by two of his friends, Kanwar and Jyoti. At first, this was OK but, around 2018, this is when Sidhu starts to get really famous, there's a lot of money involved, and that's when cracks started to appear. At first, Sidhu's relationship with his managers was great, like brothers. But after a while, the relationship between the three of them soured. Between the three of us, we were always clear. Jyoti and I kept the money from live shows and Sidhu got all the revenue from the songs. Sidhu approved of this arrangement. Sidhu and these guys were new to all this, so they didn’t really know how to manage finances. Food, accommodation, transport for 50 people costs money. This was all being expensed from the show money. That’s when I think Sidhu’s dad started looking into the accounts. The father told Sidhu, "You write your own songs, you sing them. "Then why are they making the money?" They accused us. They said, “Kanwar and Jyoti took his money wrongfully.” His family asked Sidhu to leave Kanwar and Jyoti and manage his own affairs. When there's not much money, things usually go fine. There is love. But when you add fame and money to the mix, fights start to happen. People become enemies. Almost as soon as he'd made it, Sidhu lost his management, and that left him exposed at a time when he was making a lot of money, and that attracted the attention of some really dangerous people. MUSIC: Lifestyle by Sidhu Moose Wala Sidhu was absolutely steeped in hip-hop culture, as a lot of modern day Punjabi artists are. So, in his videos, there were guns, there was all that gangster stuff, you know, machismo, bravado - all of this, "I'm the gangster", which I felt he was role playing at, but he got a lot of criticism for it. You’re a smart guy and you know what people say, "What kind of songs does he sing? “Songs about gangsters, about beating people up, arrogant songs...” Do you feel you have a responsibility to society or do you just think, “It’s my life”? Firstly, I started listening to hip-hop when I was in sixth grade. Black hip-hop, American hip-hop, there’s nothing more violent than that. If anyone’s doing anything bad, it’s because of the company they keep. I’ve been listening to hip-hop all my life, but I’ve never shot anyone, I’m not dealing drugs. He was obsessed with hip-hop culture and the history of hip-hop culture, and hip-hop culture after the '80s and break dancing, and all that stuff, went violent very quickly. You know, you listen to any of the greats, the golden era of hip-hop in the '90s, they were gangsters, they carried guns. It was all about taking your enemies out. So he actually drew from that. Because he was also, like, heavily hip-hop influenced, you know, obviously from even, like, Tupac and all the new stuff as well. So he was already, like, you know, had that, like, hip-hop mentality as well. For me, the legend is Tupac. Tupac Shakur is still one of the best-selling and most influential rappers of all time. Tupac’s influence extends beyond music. He was not only an artist, but also an activist. He sang freestyle and always spoke his mind. Every time I speak, I want the truth to come out, you know what I'm saying? Every time I speak, I want to shiver. You know, I don't want them to be like, they know what I'm going to say because it's polite. They know what I'm going to say. And even if I get in trouble, you know what I'm saying, ain't that what we're supposed to do? I'm not saying I'm going to rule the world or I'm going to change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world. He gathered his community through his writing. In terms of personality, I want to be like him. The day he died, people cried for him. I want the same. Iconic rapper Tupac Shakur was shot here in Las Vegas. The rapper was shot inside of a BMW while stopped at a red light on Koval and Flamingo. When I die, people should remember that I was somebody. I wrote a few lines for him. Can you sing them? Words like bombs and a voice like the devil. Live fast, die young is the only choice. I don’t ask much from God. My only desire is that my name should echo after I’m gone. We live by gun, we die by gun. That's our lifestyle, girl. We live by gun, we die by gun. That's our lifestyle, girl. Roleplaying a gangster in hip-hop isn't unusual, but the problem is Sidhu Moose Wala was playing the role of a gangster in an industry where there are real gangsters and there are real threats. The calls started coming in 2018. He wrote about it in the song East Side Flow. “Every morning, with my cup of tea, I get a threat call.” CHEERING I received a threat call and they warned me, “Don’t come to Edmonton or we’ll kill you.” CHEERING CHANTING: Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! He would send me his location on Whatsapp wherever he was. He would say, “If I’m not back by a certain time, “you have my location, so you can find me.” They told me not to perform here in Edmonton. God has given me this life. Why should I fear people? If I go down, I’ll take five or six enemies with me. I can handle ten on my own. Those who dream of crushing me, I swear to God, I won’t let them sleep. Did Sidhu share anything about these threats he received? I was sitting next to him when he got a call. I asked him about it and his face fell. Then he’s like, “I got a threat call.” He said these guys were behaving strangely. Then he got another call. He said, “I’ll have to do a music video for them. “Someone is asking for a song.” I asked, “How much money?” He said, “We’ll have to do it.” Who called him, he would never say. Extortion is an old business model used by Punjabi gangs operating in Canada. But it was when Punjabi singers, musicians, artists started to get richer, these gangs worked out a new trick and, instead of money, they started asking for song rights. There have been a lot of instances where singers have been approached and they are being extorted. They have to part with some of their songs at times. If they're not able to give cash, then they end up giving their songs, which are further traded on to some other companies and the gangsters would, you know, get their cut out of it. Everyone I spoke to said Sidhu was getting threat calls, that "they" were calling Sidhu, "they" were asking for tracks. No-one was willing to give any names, but what people meant by "they" are gangsters. No-one wants to say that word out loud, the word "gangsters", So I thought the only person who could tell me how this extortion works was a gangster himself. I’m also friends with many singers. It’s people like us who become singers, so there’s a natural friendship. We stay in touch. We meet up sometimes. We mix in the same circles. Singers need us [gangsters]. When they need our help, they reach out. Obviously, singers have to pay protection money. And then there’s also extortion. It happens all the time. Singers get extorted. So, this is a recording of a phone call that took months to set up. This guy won't let me record video. I met him on two occasions and I know who he is. But even before I met him, I knew that he was a major player in the world of Punjabi organised crime. The first call is never a threat. We tell them politely that we need the money, and if the guy agrees then it’s fine. But if not, we know what to do. It doesn’t take long to kill someone who is acting smart. I just have to send two guys on a motorcycle. MOTORCYCLE ENGINE BLARES Sidhu broke through whilst he was in Canada, but he was also getting played all over India, and that was really important to him because it doesn't matter how famous you get in the West, if you're a Punjabi artist, you really want the validation of your fellow Punjabis back home. In 2018, Sidhu gave a concert at Panjab University. It was his first ever live performance in India. Usually, we prepare for 4,000–5,000 students. Sidhu probably had more than 12,000–14,000 students come up. We were not prepared for that. I personally feel Sidhu came to capture the imagination of Punjab’s youth. The vibe was very different. It was crazy. CHANTING: Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! INTRODUCTION Sidhu Moose Wala! CHEERING Hello, people of Chandigarh! I swear, this is my first live performance in India. I salute you all. I left India on 27 December 2016. I knew nothing when I left. I didn’t have any family in Canada. I’m just a farmer’s son. But in Canada, I linked up with singers and I made hit after hit. Today, I’m here in front of you. When Sidhu performed at the Panjab University, there was a professor who protested against Sidhu’s performance. He argued that Sidhu’s songs glorified guns and violence, and he claimed that it was harming Punjab’s culture. There was, like, a lot of police scrutiny. Officers of the court, then the university authorities looking over the whole thing. Recently, there was controversy at the university where people said, “Sidhu will bring guns to the concert.” They said, “He glorifies weapons and guns, and is not a good influence on the youth.” We live in a democracy and you have a right to disagree with me. I’m scared of no-one but God. I’m here today, maybe I won’t be here tomorrow. But the truth is right in front of you. I just wrote this today. The song is called Chithha. Do you know what chithha means? “The truth.” CHEERING They complain there are songs about alcohol on TV. But I ask, “Why are there more liquor stores than schools in Punjab? “Why don’t you put a stop to the alcohol trade, the trade that you profit from? “And when you ban guns, then we’ll stop singing about them. CHEERING “And when you ban guns, then we’ll stop singing about them.” CHEERING The songs, the music, the lyrics that Sidhu Moose Wala brought was clearly a big disruption, not just for Panjab University but for Punjab as well. CHANTING: Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! Sidhu! Punjab has not seen something like this, at least in the last 20-25 years. What you have to understand here is that Panjab University is not just a university. It's a power centre in the Punjab. And the reason for that is student politics. It's a training ground for our politicians. Panjab University was the place where you would prove your mettle, what you are made of. Without any doubt, mainstream political parties keep an eye on Panjab University politics. We can call it a power tussle, I think, over Panjab University, over representing the youth of Punjab. Very often, student leaders who come through student politics at Panjab University end up becoming political leaders of Punjab, and sometimes even of India. These student leaders, these aspiring politicians, they are fighting for influence on campus and outside. In Punjab, that often involves some kind of intimidation, some kind of thuggery to grab power, to scare their opponents and things like that. At the time Sidhu gave his concert at Panjab University, one of the most charismatic student leaders there was a guy called Vicky Middukhera. Vicky Middukhera become a prominent student leader at Panjab University. He had a lot of influence amongst the youth. He was active in Chandigarh and had a lot of friends from the music industry. According to the police, Vicky Middukhera had a lot of influence on different gangs. He also managed finances for some of them. But by 2010-2011, he had become a cult figure around Chandigarh. SHOUTING Vicky was the leader who was loved by everyone. If you had a fight with anyone, you used to go to Vicky. Ask him to sort things out and he did. He brought Lawrence Bishnoi into politics and put him up for election. It’s believed he was a kind of godfather to Lawrence Bishnoi. HE MAKES A SPEECH We are announcing Lawrence Bishnoi as the president of SOPU [Student Organisation of Panjab University]. Hail Lawrence Bishnoi! Hail Lawrence Bishnoi! Hail SOPU! Lawrence and Vicky. They loved each other like brothers. Together, their name carried weight in the city. Later, Lawrence went his own way, while Vicky Middukhera continued in politics. He left his thug image behind and went into politics, but he was still in touch with Lawrence Bishnoi and the others. Vicky Middukhera, Goldy Brar, Lawrence Bishnoi - they were a bunch of, you know, youngsters who were moving together. Goldy Brar is believed to be involved in several incidents where Lawrence Bishnoi, and many other gangs, the college groups, would clash and Goldy Brar used to be a muscleman. Those were not the times when they could be actually termed as "gangsters" but they were the young guys who had just gone astray. Lawrence had a little more violent tendencies. He was quick to get into a fight. He got into crime in early 2011-12. Till such time, he was a normal student. Gradually, he became a normal criminal. The first cases filed against Lawrence Bishnoi were all related to student politics and student elections... beating a rival student leader, kidnapping him, harming him, harming his supporters. He got lodged in the jail. And that is from where they start. And while you go to the jails, you end up mixing up with other criminals. And that is how it starts, from campus to jails, which are considered to be the final universities where you actually learn about crime. Once he was in jail, he started to get deeper into crime. Then he formed a group of his own. When it became an inter-gang thing, he needed money for survival. They need more manpower, they need more weapons. They need money for all that. So, for money, you have to get into extortion or crime. So, while Lawrence Bishnoi sits in jail, Goldy Brar handles a gang from abroad. Goldy is the guy who claims to have ordered Sidhu's killing. So, if anyone knows why Sidhu was killed, it's Goldy Brar. But the problem is no-one knows where he is. PHONE RINGS Hi, Ishleen. It’s me, Goldy Brar. I am getting your messages from, like, around a year now. You are asking about the Sidhu incident, right? Why it happened, how it happened. I guess you guys are making a documentary or something? So, yeah, I’m gonna tell you some incidents I know about. The Thar [jeep] came out and these people were waiting outside. Sidhu said, "Lawrence Bishnoi called me." Lawrence called him from jail. I don't fear anyone, no matter how powerful. He had told me, he said, just out of nowhere, he's like, "Bro, you know, like, when I die, "I'm going to die by bullets." We have killed the Sikh.

Three years after the murder of Punjabi hip-hop icon Sidhu Moose Wala, #BBCEye questions the gangster who says he ordered the killing. Click here to subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 https://bbc.in/3VyyriM On 29 May 2022, Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala was murdered by hired hitmen who followed his car, shot him through the windscreen, and left him to die. As news of the killing spread across India and around the world, a gangster named Goldy Brar claimed responsibility for the hit. But three years later, no-one has been convicted of this murder, the motives remain murky, and Goldy Brar is still on the run. BBC Eye Investigations has been talking to some of the people closest to Sidhu Moose Wala, tracing his rise from obscurity to stardom, finding out how he made enemies of India’s most feared gang, and asking why they wanted him dead. It’s a story that takes us from the villages of rural India to the hip-hop scene of eastern Canada, from the turbulant history of Punjab to the contested politics of modern India, and from the shadowy world of organised crime to a chilling phone call with the fugitive gangster, who says he ordered the hit. Based on hours of unseen archive and exclusive access to Sidhu’s friends and musical collaborators, the film features voices that have never spoken to the media before. 00:00 Breaking barriers: A revolutionary and modern-day poet 04:47 Raw Talent: “All he wanted to do was become an artist”. 09:56 Canada and the rise to fame 13:40 Byg Byrd lights the touchpaper 17:43 Sidhu’s managers and the first cracks appear 20:35 A love of hip-hop and a dream to be India’s Tupac 24:05 Gangster role-play in an industry “with real gangsters and real threats” 26:00 Extortion as explained by a gangster 28:43 Validation and Controversy in India: “Punjab hadn't seen something like this for the last 20-25 years” 33:28 Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar: Students turned criminals 39:21 Goldy Brar calls ⏭ Watch episode two of this documentary here: https://youtu.be/VC_clSpgak0 📩 Share the playlist of this two-part documentary: https://bit.ly/thekillingcall 🎧 Listen to the new season of World of Secrets exploring this investigation, here or wherever you get your BBC podcasts: https://lnkfi.re/world-of-secrets-bbc 🎞️ To watch more investigative journalism from our award-winning BBC Eye investigations team, check out this documentary playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz_B0PFGIn4fa8LK1lptsvoA_spfJhzda 📽️ Watch the full documentary in PUNJABI here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfy_8eSU7I and in HINDI here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeilwYFWk00 ---------------- This is the official BBC World Service YouTube channel. If you like what we do, you can also find us here: Instagram 👉🏽 https://www.instagram.com/bbcworldservice Twitter 👉🏽 https://twitter.com/bbcworldservice Facebook 👉🏽 https://facebook.com/bbcworldservice BBC World Service website 👉🏽 https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio Thanks for watching and subscribing! #Documentaries #SidhuMooseWala #InvestigativeJournalism #IndiaDocumentary #PunjabDocumentary #Punjab #PunjabNews #BBCWorldService #WorldService