New Delhi: Bursts of bullets to take out targets, posts claiming responsibility within 12 hours, young recruits who stay off the radar of central agencies, cross-border arms trade, overseas pals, and the use of social media for recruitment—India’s gang warfare has reached new heights.
The leading alliance of gangsters—most talked about—now from the northern belt, is controlled by Lawrence Bishnoi from behind bars and his overseas fugitive aides, gangsters Goldy Brar and Rohit Godara.
The Bishnoi gang and its allies have claimed responsibility for several high-profile killings and threats over the past couple of years.
According to the police, Bishnoi has also issued threats against actor Salman Khan, who has allegedly been on the gang’s hit list since the 1998 poaching of two blackbucks during a movie shoot in Rajasthan.
There are others like Gen Z fugitive gangster Himanshu Bhau, who want to gain the same notoriety as Bishnoi. But, Bishnoi’s gang is too big. It has 700 active members and an ever-increasing number of fresh, young shooters.
Bishnoi’s massive social media presence, high-profile murders among nearly three dozen criminal cases, non-stop flow of recruits, and his aides’ promotion of flashy lifestyles on social media have made him the most charismatic gangster for young ‘pawns’ attracted by the idea of “fame”.
Every time Bishnoi’s syndicate has claimed responsibility for crimes, it has boasted about the same on social media. Multiple fan pages promote the posts, and future recruits go gaga in the comment sections.
The latest crime that upholds Bishnoi’s undisputed dominance is the murder of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique in Mumbai.
Believed to be a Bishnoi gang member, Shubham Lonkar put up a social media post, purportedly claiming the syndicate’s responsibility for the murder. Among the reasons cited for the murder of the 66-year-old Siddique was his proximity to Bollywood actor Salman Khan. There was also a Dawood Ibrahim reference in Lonkar’s post.
The Mumbai Police Crime Branch investigating this high-profile murder has not ruled out other motives, especially since the suspect, who likely first opened fire and fatally shot Siddique, remains absconding. There are others, including a prominent Bishnoi gang member, who handed over the contract for Siddique’s murder and micromanaged the supari, the police suspect.
While suspects Dharamaraj Kashypal, Gurnail Singh, Pravin Lonkar, and Harish Kumar are currently in police custody, Pravin’s brother Shubham, who purportedly put up the social media post, is still on the run. At the center of the murder, the police say, is a scrap dealing shop in Pune, and a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich.
Over the past two years, the Bishnoi gang has claimed responsibility for the murders of singer and Congress leader Sidhu Moosewala and Sikh separatist and gangster Sukha Deneka, as well as for opening fire outside the homes of Punjabi singers A.P. Dhillon and Gippy Grewal. The gang also featured in the killing of Karni Sena faction chief Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi in December last year when fugitive gangster and Bishnoi’s close associate Rohit Godara claimed responsibility for the murder.
These syndicates started with petty crimes and extortion but moved into narco-trafficking, cross-border arms smuggling, and hit jobs later. Through it all, bloodshed due to gang rivalries remains perennial. Similar to the Mumbai underworld gangs in the 1990s, today’s syndicates expand into terrorising traders, real estate developers, drugs, and the Punjabi music industry.
Investigators say these syndicates, such as the ones run by Dawood Ibrahim, demand “protection money” from singers of the Punjabi music industry and even call the shots for their choice of venue, models, etc.
As ThePrint reported earlier, Gogamedi’s murder had links to gang rivalry, a 2002 murder, and the liquor trade in the Rajasthan-Haryana belt.
Also read: Political power play, ‘gang rivalry’ & a 600-sq-yard land — saga of Haryana INLD chief’s murder
Rise, rivalry, empire & master negotiator
The killing of some gangsters, either in police encounters or hit jobs by rival gangs, and the dismantling of their syndicates after key members’ arrests created a vacuum that Lawrence Bishnoi exploited.
Bishnoi ally Jitender Maan Gogi exited the picture in May 2021 when the rival Tillu Tajpuria gang killed him in full public view inside the Rohini court. Investigators said Bishnoi was already ready to become the undisputed leader, and Gogi’s murder just paved the way for him to take the chair. Meanwhile, all these years, he has been safely lodged in high security prisons, since 2014.
Sources called Bishnoi a “master negotiator”. He brought allies from the northern and western belts and connected them with his overseas friends, such as Godara and Brar. “Bishnoi remains charged with murder and conspiracy in multiple cases, but to prove his actual association becomes a task during investigations,” a source said, adding that Bishnoi has a “political” style of running his business.
Born to a farmer in Punjab’s Fazilka district, Bishnoi had gone to Panjab University to study law but got embroiled in the world of crime instead. His first brush with the law dates back to 2011-2012, during university elections. At the university, he made lasting friendships with Sampat Nehra and fugitive gangster Goldy Brar, sometime in 2014.
However, Bishnoi’s godfather from Fazilka, Jaswinder Singh alias ‘Rocky’, while being lodged in the Bharatpur jail, helped Bishnoi lay down a foundation for his empire. He was killed by a rival gang in 2016. A failed political aspirant but a dreaded gangster, ‘Rocky’ was shot dead at the age of 39 by his rival, Jaipal Bhullar, who ran his own gang.
Later, the killings of Rajasthan-based gangster Anand Pal in an alleged police encounter in 2017, and rival Raju Thet in 2022 paved the way for Bishnoi’s dominance. And the allies kept coming.
Sandeep alias Kala Jathedi, also a Bishnoi ally, recently married Anuradha Choudhary, who was earlier associated with gangster Anand Pal Singh. Delhi’s Hashim Baba gang is an ally of Bishnoi. Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu gang, which claimed responsibility for the murder of INLD leader Nafee Singh Rathee in February this year, is also a Bishnoi ally.
Sangwan, who has reportedly settled in the UK, had called Rathee an ally of the Manjeet Mahal gang, the Nandu gang’s archrival.
Bishnoi gang’s archrival is the Lucky Patial-Bambiha-Kaushal alliance. Patial is believed to be in Armenia, Davinder Bambiha died in an encounter in 2016, and Kaushal is in jail. Arsh Dalla, believed to be a member of the Khalistan Tiger Force, is reportedly their ally.
Bishnoi, keeping aside his transfer to and from at least seven jails, including Bharatpur, Bhatinda, Jaipur, Tihar, Mandoli, and Sabarmati, in just 10 years, has continued to accumulate more power and impunity. He has made just one escape attempt from jail back in 2015.
His seamless access to phones is apparent from the murder of Sidhu Moose Wala. Investigators found that Bishnoi had made calls to Brar, just four days after the murder of youth Akali Dal leader Vicky Middukhera, to discuss the revenge plot against Moosewala. He likely stalked Moosewala and became suspicious about the singer’s ties to the rival Bambiha gang, and the song ‘Bambiha Bole’ must have been the last straw.
Canada, arms, drugs & funding
The story of organised crime and gangsters remains unfinished without the mention of Sikh separatism. Sources in central agencies have noted that Sikh separatists back gangs that promote gun culture and violence.
Now, Sikh separatism has emerged once again as the latest flashpoint between India and Canada. Indian government agents, Canada has alleged, were behind the killing of Sikh separatist and Khalistan Tiger Force chief Harpreet Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India.
After Nijjar’s murder, social media fan pages for gangs called him a “martyr” and shared photos of radical Sikh preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindrewale.
Gangsters, who have dozens of cases in India, often flee overseas and some end up in Canada, according to sources in central agencies. India, in the past six years, has shared at least three dozen names of suspected militants with the Canadian authorities, but none were extradited.
Agencies suspected both Brar and Godara to be living in Canada at one point. Then, there is suspected KTF operative Ramandeep Singh alias Raman Judge, tied to the Jaipal Bhullar gang, also operating on Canadian soil. Jailed gangster Kala Rana’s associate Prince Chauhan and Babbar Khalsa operative Lakhbir Singh Sandhu alias Landa too, agencies say, fled to Canada as well. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, ‘general counsel’ of the pro-separatist outfit, Sikhs for Justice has dual US and Canadian citizenship.
“Pro-Khalistan elements find Canada a safe haven. There are other gangs, whose members have fled to Canada and now operate from there. Khalistan operatives and those sharing similar sentiments give them funds and help them with weapons,” a source said.
While arms manufactured in cottage industries across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh reach these gangsters, investigators noted there is also a high cross-border smuggling of arms through the Punjab and Nepal borders. “Sometimes, they send it via road, or through Jammu and Kashmir. Most of them have now shifted to dropping it off at borders with drones,” another source said.
The funds to run the operations come from extortion money, which these gangs often loot. Sources said syndicates, such as the one led by Bishnoi, also smuggle drugs, termed “narco-terrorism” by agencies. The Gujarat ATS arrested Bishnoi in one such case after the seizure of 39 kg of contraband.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: Gangs of New Delhi – featuring young guns, social media swag, & finance
Panjab University produces gangsters and mafia dons by the dozens. No wonder it is one of the top ranked universities in India.