New Delhi: With US authorities confirming the presence of fugitive Anmol Bishnoi, younger brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, in their country, the legal process to extradite the former has picked up pace in the last two weeks. The Mumbai Police Crime Branch has submitted the requisite documents for extradition to the home ministry, ThePrint has learnt.
Court proceedings related to the extradition of Anmol Bishnoi were completed on 15 October, officials aware of the matter said, adding that it was done after investigators probing the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s home were alerted that Bishnoi was last seen in the United States. Anmol had claimed responsibility for the April firing incident through a Facebook post. His name also cropped up in the 2022 murder case of singer Sidhu Moosewala, and Mumbai politician Baba Siddique’s killing last month.
In September, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had declared a reward of Rs 10 lakh for any information that might lead to Anmol Bishnoi’s arrest. Interpol already had a Red Corner Notice issued against him, since Moosewala’s murder.
The US authorities’ alert received by the Mumbai Police came in September via the Central Bureau of Investigation, the nodal agency for international cooperation in law enforcement.
Interestingly, investigators’ documents for extradition were approved by the Special MCOCA Court just three days after Baba Siddique was shot dead in Bandra, in which the junior Bishnoi’s role is suspected.
The Mumbai Police got the notification about Bishnoi’s location as they had obtained a non-bailable arrest warrant against him and Lawrence Bishnoi’s aide Rohit Godara in the Salman Khan firing case, sources said.
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The Mumbai Police had arrested Sagar Pal and Vicky Gupta from Gujarat’s Kutch district on charges of firing shots at the first floor of Salman Khan’s Bandra residence on 14 April.
In its chargesheet filed against Pal and Gupta in July, the Mumbai Crime Branch alleged that Anmol was in contact with the accused through the Signal app, and provided financial and material support for the attack.
The Crime Branch had slapped the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), claiming that the crime was committed using a wide-ranging network of Bishnoi’s syndicate.
Based on the investigators’ request, the MCOCA court on 25 July issued non-bailable warrants against Anmol and Godara.
This was the third non-bailable warrant issued against Anmol which have been used by the different investigating agencies to seek his extradition, according to the officials aware of the matter.
Before the proceedings in the Salman Khan case, Anmol was subjected to two such arrest warrants in the past—first for his role in the assassination of Moosewala after the Delhi Police Special Cell had in July 2022 arrested two shooters linked to him and second in the case filed by the NIA in August 2022 on the charge of recruiting youth and propagating acts of terrorism in the country.
Based on these non-bailable warrants, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had secured issuance of Red Corner Notice against him in December 2022 which was later updated in August last year.
The Punjab Police had also got a look out circular issued against Anmol on 24 June 2022, nearly a month after Moosewala was killed in his home district. However, officials aware of the matter said that he fled the country using a fake passport made on a Faridabad-based address despite hailing from Punjab’s Fazilka district.
As per the Red Corner Notice issued by the Interpol, investigators suspect him to have visited Kenya, Canada, Nepal, the UAE. and California in the US while being at large.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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