BOMBAY TIMES (August 2, 2019)

Guru Randhawa became the latest victim of attacks on Punjabi singers while he was on a tour to Canada. On July 28, Guru, who was performing in Vancouver was attacked by a Punjabi man from the audience who insisted getting on stage while Guru was performing. On Monday, Guru returned to India from his US/Canada tour and his managers posted the clarification of the incident as, “Guru is back in India with four stitches on his right eyebrow and mega successful USA/Canada tour. The incident happened on July 28 in Vancouver when Guru told one Punjabi man not to come on stage while he was performing for the audience.”

While this was a case of a hurt fan who was refused proximity to the singer, Punjabi singers have been in the centre of controversy for some time now since Parmish Verma (right) was shot at by gangster, Dilpreet Dahan in Mohali last year. Following this incident was a set of extortion calls to singers including Gippy Grewal and singer, politician Balkar Sidhu.

In February this year, a bloody fight erupted during the concert of Elly Mangat and Sidhu Moosewala (left), in Surrey, Canada. Though there was no verification about the reason behind the scuffle, some attributed it to personal rift between local artists in an inebriated state.
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CONCERTS AND FOREIGN TOURS BECOME BREEDING GROUND FOR ATTACKS ON SINGERS

Earlier in June, there was news of singer Karan Aujla also being attacked in Surrey, Canada. It was claimed that notorious Punjabi gangster, Sukhpreet Budda was behind the attack. However, that claim was not verified by the Punjab police as stated by Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, IG, Punjab Police Organised Crime Control Unit, who said, “We are verifying both the posts and the location from where they have been made. They don’t seem from anywhere in India.”

When Gippy Grewal approached the Mohali police against the extortion calls last year, a case was registered against, “Dilpreet Dhahan after Gippy informed us that he received an extortion call from him," said Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal.