Gangster tells BBC why India’s biggest hip-hop star was murdered

It was a killing that shocked India: Punjabi hip-hop star Sidhu Moose Wala shot dead through the windscreen of his car by hired gunmen.

Within hours, a Punjabi gangster named Goldy Brar had used Facebook to claim responsibility for ordering the hit.

But three years after the murder, no-one has faced trial – and Goldy Brar is still on the run, his whereabouts unknown.

Now, BBC Eye has managed to make contact with Brar and challenged him about how and why Sidhu Moose Wala became a target.

His response was coldly articulate.

“In his arrogance, he [Moose Wala] made some mistakes that could not be forgiven,” Brar told the BBC World Service.

“We had no option but to kill him. He had to face the consequences of his actions. It was either him or us. As simple as that.”On a warm May evening in 2022, Sidhu Moose Wala was taking his black Mahindra Thar SUV for its usual spin through dusty lanes near his village in the northern Indian state of Punjab when, within minutes, two cars began tailing him.

CCTV footage later showed them weaving through narrow turns, sticking close. Then, at a bend in the road, one of the vehicles lurched forward, cornering Moose Wala’s SUV against a wall. He was trapped. Moments later, the shooting began.

Mobile footage captured the aftermath. His SUV was riddled with bullets, the windscreen shattered, the bonnet punctured.

In trembling voices, bystanders expressed their shock and concern.

“Someone get him out of the car.”

“Get some water.”

“Moose Wala has been shot.”

But it was too late. He was declared dead on arrival at hospital – hit by 24 bullets, a post-mortem would later reveal. The 28-year-old rapper, one of modern-day Punjab’s biggest cultural icons, had been gunned down in broad daylight.

A cousin and a friend who had been in the car with Moose Wala at the time of the ambush were injured, but survived.

Six gunmen were eventually identified. They carried AK-47s and pistols. In the weeks that followed the murder, about 30 people were arrested and two of the suspected armed men were killed in what the Indian police described as “encounters”.

Yet even with arrests piling up, the motive remained murky.

Goldy Brar, who claims to have ordered the hit, wasn’t in India at the time of the killing. He is believed to have been in Canada.

Our conversation with him unfolded over six hours, pieced together through an exchange of voice notes. It gave us a chance to find out why Moose Wala had been killed and to interrogate the motives of the man who claimed responsibility.