Four Brits held in UK over Indian Sikh's murder

London, July 14 (ANI): Police in the West Midland area of Britain have arrested four men for their role in the murder of a controversial and high profile Sikh politician in India last year.

Police said the suspects were all British nationals, and were detained in Wolverhampton, Coventry and Smethwick, near Birmingham.

Rulda Singh, a leader of the Sikh wing of India's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting by two gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Patiala, Punjab, in July last year.

He died in hospital two weeks later.

Investigations into his killing launched by police in Britain and India focused on his role in Sikh religious affairs and bitter feuds within Sikh politics in both countries.

As a BJP general secretary responsible for the party's relations with Sikhs and other Indians living overseas, Singh was connected with senior BJP figures.

But according to detectives in India, it was his role in the pro-BJP Sikh cultural organisation, the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, which led to his assassination.

Ranbir Khatra, Senior Superintendent of Police in Patiala, told The Daily Telegraph he believed members of the Babbar Khalsa International terrorist group, which wants an independent Sikh homeland called Khalistan, and the British Sikh Council, murdered Singh.

"He had differences with the radical people who were opposed to his proposal to install the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikhism's Holy Book) in Hindu temples," he said.

His proposal had provoked angry protests against a meeting of his Rashtriya Sikh Sangat in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh last year to discuss it. (ANI)