New Delhi. Jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi (31) alias Balkaran Brar was just five years old when the black buck poaching case involving actor Salman Khan took place in Rajasthan in 1998 during the shooting of the film ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’. Bishnoi community became very angry with this matter. Twenty-six years later, despite being in jail, the notorious gangster’s deep resentment towards Salman remains in the headlines. The name of Bishnoi gang has come to light after former Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddiqui (66), considered close to Salman, was shot dead by three assailants in Mumbai last week.
Mumbai Police suspect that Siddiqui was murdered at the behest of Bishnoi, as a post had appeared on Facebook in which it was claimed that “Whoever will help Salman Khan and Dawood gang, keep your accounts.” These comments were posted by a person named Shubu Lonkar, whom police suspect to be Bishnoi gang associate Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar.
A senior Delhi Police officer told PTI that the intentions of Bishnoi gang have now gone beyond taking revenge from Salman. The officer said, “This gang is now trying to make inroads into Bollywood, which was once Dawood Ibrahim’s territory, and wants to set up its own ‘D-Company’.”
The officer said that despite being in jail, Bishnoi allegedly managed to kill several prominent people, including Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala in 2022 and Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi in 2023. Apart from this, he also conspired to carry out firing outside the residences of singers AP Dhillon and Gippy Grewal in Canada.
The gang has also taken responsibility for the murder of Khalistani supporter Sukha Dunake in September 2023. According to the police, the enmity between Bishnoi and Salman first became public in 2018, when Bishnoi, during a court appearance in Jodhpur, had said, “We will kill Salman Khan.” Everyone will know once we take action. “I haven’t done anything yet, they are accusing me of a crime without any reason.” Since then, the actor has received several death threats, and the issue made headlines in April this year when two henchmen of the Bishnoi gang opened fire outside Salman’s Bandra residence. He was later arrested.
According to Delhi Police records, Bishnoi himself has never killed anyone, yet he has become one of the most feared gangsters, running the gang from a Gujarat jail, and his modus operandi is similar to that of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. It is only there.
According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Bishnoi now has a 700-member strong gang across the country, including sharpshooters, and he is joined by others like Goldie Brar, Sachin Thapan, Anmol Bishnoi, Vikramjit Singh, Kala Jathedi and Kala Rana. Help is also available from a notorious gangster.
An officer said, “Most of the sharpshooters are youth, who are usually influenced by his gang through social media.” According to police records, Bishnoi, a resident of Fazilka district of Punjab, has graduated in law from Panjab University in Chandigarh. According to records, farmer’s son Bishnoi has about 100 acres of land in Punjab. He has a tattoo of Hanumanji on his right hand and is known for his driving and accurate aiming abilities.
Bishnoi’s younger brother Anmol, who studied in a college in Rajasthan, has now joined his gang, which operates from outside the country. Bishnoi entered the world of crime in 2010 while studying at Panjab University, when he opened fire on a rival candidate during the student union elections, for which he had to spend three months in jail. During his graduation, he also contested the university elections and became the president of the student union.
Bishnoi, who has been convicted in four criminal cases in Punjab, has been mostly active in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi before setting his sights on Maharashtra. He has been convicted for extortion, murder, attempt to murder and offenses under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Lawrence Bishnoi and his henchmen, classic examples of gangster-terrorism nexus
Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi is the product of the gangster-terrorism nexus. He has been named by the National Investigation Tribunal (NIA) in several high-profile cases including arms smuggling from banned organization Babbar Khalsa International, Pakistan. The latest case against the jailed 31-year-old gangster has been registered in connection with the shooting dead of former Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddiqui (66) in public in Mumbai on Saturday night. He is being considered the main accused.
Despite NIA’s best efforts to dismantle Bishnoi’s criminal network, he continues to carry out his criminal conspiracies through a large network of his operatives and shooters in several states, especially in the northern and western parts.
In an effort to dismantle the gangster-terrorist network linked to Babbar Khalsa International, the NIA had named Bishnoi in a terror case last year. The charge sheet filed in this regard gives details of his criminal activities and smuggling of arms, explosives and drugs from Pakistan.
The counter-terrorism agency claimed that Bishnoi’s communication channel was widespread, allowing uninterrupted communication between gang members, even among those in jail. The NIA had claimed that Bishnoi was running an extortion ring in collaboration with Canada-based gangster Goldie Brar. Brar has close links with pro-Khalistan terrorist organization Babbar Khalsa International (BKI).
Bishnoi has been in jail for almost a decade, but during this period, he has been operating his terrorism-crime gang from whatever jail he was in. Goldie Brar is accused of the murder of Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pradeep Kumar in Faridkot in November 2022. The NIA investigation has revealed that the Lawrence Bishnoi terrorism-crime-extortion gang was also responsible for the rocket-launched grenade attack on the Punjab State Intelligence Headquarters in Mohali in the state in May 2023 and was allegedly linked to Pakistan-based BKI terrorist Harvinder Singh. It was done on the instructions of alias Rinda.
The NIA has also filed a chargesheet against Bishnoi in another case related to the seizure of about 39 kg of heroin by Gujarat Police in September 2022. The agency has also seized four properties of Bishnoi gang members. Of these, three are immovable and one movable property. They were seized in coordinated raids by NIA teams in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Sources said that Bishnoi gang is active in many states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Jharkhand and always tries to attract innocent youth with them.