New Delhi: While seeking remand for gangster Anmol Bishnoi, who was deported from the US and taken into custody this week, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) cited the example of a brutal 2015 murder as a tipping point that emboldened criminal syndicates to spread their nexus beyond Punjab.
The incident dates to January 2015, when a group waylaid a police team in Punjab’s Phagwara while it was escorting gangster Sukha Kahlwan to Nabha jail in Patiala after a court hearing in Jalandhar.
The group, which consisted of members of a rival gang, killed Kahlwan, snatched weapons from the police party, and danced around the body while holding cops hostage.
The murder as the first “major incident” and sent “shivers of fear among a large section of the society”, NIA said in its charge sheet against Anmol and his brother Lawrence Bishnoi.
Though the murder was not directly linked to the Bishnoi gang, special public prosecutor Rahul Tyagi and advocate Amit Rohilla told the Patiala Court in New Delhi that most gangs were only involved in petty crimes such as thefts and local rivalries until then.
Kahlwan’s daylight killing encouraged gangs, which eventually spread beyond Punjab to other northern states, among them Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, the agency argued.
The main accused in the Kahlwan case, Vicky Gounder, was killed in an encounter with Punjab Police in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar district in January 2018.
‘Handled finances & logistics’
Anmol Bishnoi, the younger brother of gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi, is wanted in around 40 cases across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
These include the assassinations of Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala in Punjab’s Mansa in 2022 and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddiqui last year.
The agency alleged in its remand application that Anmol, who fled from India on a fake visa in 2022, is a key figure in the network of gangsters and was also involved with separatist outfit Babbar Khalsa International.
Anmol’s role was instrumental in providing logistical support to Moose Wala and Siddqui shooters, along with the men who opened fire at Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s Bandra house in April last year, NIA said.
Further, it said, Anmol handled the Bishnoi gang’s finances.
Lawyers Tyagi and Rohilla, representing the agency, said Anmol has been named in four NIA charge sheets and his remand for necessary to ascertain the extent of his involvement in multiple gang-related crimes.
His past conduct – of fleeing the country – made it a fitting case to grant remand, NIA said.
A Punjab resident, Anmol was declared a proclaimed offender by earlier this year. He was deported from the US and taken into custody on Wednesday.
Special judge Prashant Sharma, after hearing NIA’s arguments Wednesday, sent Anmol to 11 days in remand.
“Investigation with respect to role of accused qua the aspects highlighted in application have to be unearthed,” Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma noted.
“Investigation with regard to aspects viz. role of accused in alleged conspiracy, incriminating evidence against him, modus operandi used by him for committing crime in question, source of fund used by him for execution of terror conspiracy and details of social media accounts through which responsibility of terror activities executed by Lawrence Bishnoi gang in India, as mentioned in the application needs to be unearthed,” the judge said.