The chilling murder of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in Punjab’s Mansa district in 2022 brought gangster Lawrence Bishnoi international attention. Fast forward a couple of years, the leader of the notorious Bishnoi gang is once again at the vanguard of public interest after its members claimed to be responsible for the killing of veteran Mumbai political leader Baba Siddique.
Mr Siddique, a 66-year-old NCP leader and former minister, was gunned down outside his son’s office in Mumbai’s Bandra East Saturday night after three attackers fired multiple rounds at him. The assailants claimed to belong to the Bishnoi gang whose leader Lawrence remains incarcerated in Gujarat’s Sabarmati Jail.
The killing, part of a deadly cycle of violence involving the gang, has put the spotlight on the deeply entrenched operations of Lawrence Bishnoi, who has demonstrated a powerful ability to organise and execute crimes from inside the very prison meant to contain him and his gang members.
The Bishnoi Gang
With global operations spanning across continents, the Bishnoi gang is no small-time syndicate. Their operations are vast and intricate, extending through several Indian states, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh, and even have ties abroad, especially in Canada, where Goldy Brar, a key figure within the crime syndicate, is based. Their influence and network are so vast that even when Lawrence Bishnoi is locked behind bars, the gang’s operations continue to thrive.
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The involvement of the Bishnoi gang in extortion, murder, and arms trafficking has been steadily rising over the years. The group primarily extorts money from high-profile targets, including celebrities like Punjabi singers, the liquor mafia, and other prominent businessmen, employing professional shooters to carry out hits and intimidate victims into submission.
Lawrence Bishnoi, born in 1993, hails from Dhattaranwali village near Punjab’s Abohar, a seven-hour drive from Delhi, where his father, was a Haryana Police constable. Despite his humble beginnings, Lawrence Bishnoi’s ambitions led him down a dark path. It was during his Panjab University days in Chandigarh that he was first introduced to the world of organised crime, meeting the future gang leader Goldy Brar, who would later become his close associate.
How Lawrence Bishnoi Operates
Be it Gujarat’s Sabarmati Jail or Delhi’s Tihar Jail, Lawrence Bishnoi uses mobile phones to communicate. The gangster, over the years, has been shifted from one prison to another and is kept in solitary confinement. Earlier this year, a video clip viral on social media allegedly showed Lawrence Bishnoi’s conversation with Pakistan-based gangster Shahzad Bhatti.
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The mobile phones, belonging to other inmates, are often fitted with high-end VPN networks to mask the IP addresses and locations of people he communicates with. Lawrence Bishnoi uses apps like Signal and Telegram to communicate with his associates in India and abroad. Since the Bishnoi gang’s tentacles spread to several countries, especially in North America, Lawrence Bishnoi is often in communication with his brother Anmol and associates Goldy Brar and Rohit Godara. The gang shares close ties with Khalistani terrorists and Khalistani separatist groups based in North America.
In India, the gang maintains a roster of around 700 shooters. According to sources, the Bishnoi gang gets in touch with local gangsters. These local groups then hire shooters who get arms training and are paid handsomely for any contract killing or political assassination that the Bishnoi gang orders.
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The new recruits are often poor, underage boys looking for a quick buck. The potential shooters are not even aware of who they are working for. They are just given one thing: a target to kill.
The Bishnoi gang functions like a corporate company, much like how Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company operates.
The Bishnoi gang, besides their massive arsenal of sharpshooters, also has separate divisions and personnel who look after logistics, legal and information gathering.
Bishnoi Gang’s High-Profile Cases
Over the years, the gang’s activities escalated, and so did their methods. From extorting Punjabi singers and liquor mafia lords to committing high-profile assassinations, the Bishnoi gang has become notorious for the cold-blooded efficiency with which they operate.
Even from behind bars, Lawrence Bishnoi is believed to have maintained full control over the gang’s operations. Jail authorities have long suspected that Lawrence Bishnoi, like many other gang leaders incarcerated within India’s maximum-security facilities, runs his criminal empire from within the prison, using smuggled mobile phones and loyal associates who carry out his orders on the outside. One such example was when Lawrence Bishnoi was found to be using a mobile phone inside Bharatpur Jail to continue orchestrating hits and extortion attempts.
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One of Lawrence Bishnoi’s most audacious plots was the plan to assassinate Bollywood star Salman Khan in connection to the blackbuck hunting case as the blackbuck is considered sacred by the Bishnoi community.
On April 14, two men on motorbikes fired multiple rounds outside Mr Khan’s residence in Mumbai’s Bandra, leading to the arrest of several individuals.
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According to the charge sheet, the Bishnoi gang had issued a contract worth Rs 25 lakh to assassinate the actor. The plan was hatched over several months, from August 2023 to April 2024. Investigations have revealed that the gang intended to acquire advanced firearms from Pakistan, including AK-47s, AK-92s, M16 rifles, and the Turkish-made Zigana pistol, the weapon used in the murder of Moose Wala.
The Bishnoi gang’s network includes partnerships with other criminals such as Sandeep alias Kala Jathedi, a notorious gangster who was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in 2021.