If you believe the theories, Lawrence Bishnoi is doing what even Dawood Ibrahim couldn’t

File photo of Lawrence Bishnoi | ANI

It is a strange time in our country’s politics when a gangster is a major player in two different front-page stories in the space of a few days. Not since the 1990s when Dawood Ibrahim found his way into the headlines has any gangster enjoyed this level of fame.

But Lawrence Bishnoi looks set to equal or even surpass Ibrahim in public fame and notoriety. The government says that Bishnoi was behind the assassination of Baba Siddique, a major figure in politics, real estate and films in Mumbai. Siddique had recently left the Congress, where he had been a leading light for decades, and crossed over to the BJP-Shiv Sena ruling coalition in Maharashtra. (He was a member of the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP, a constituent of the ruling coalition.)

Siddique had, apparently, received death threats, as a consequence of which, the government granted him security. Early reports suggested that he was given Y-class security, which sounds impressive. But the police are now telling reporters that Siddique’s security actually consisted of three Mumbai police constables who took turns accompanying him.

Siddique’s assassins, or at least those arrested by the police for the murder, appear to be young near-amateurs who told their interrogators that they learned how to fire guns from YouTube. Certainly, the manner in which they killed Siddique demonstrated no great criminal expertise. They shot him on the road, while he was getting into his car. The lone police constable whose shift it was when the murder took place, was immobilised by the low-tech method of throwing chili powder into his eyes.

Within hours of the murder, the police were saying that the killing had been ordered by Lawrence Bishnoi and soon, they revealed that the men they had arrested had named Bishnoi as their boss. Later, a Facebook post by a man claiming to represent Bishnoi, asserted that the Bishnoi gang was behind the assassination.

In normal circumstances, when assassins reveal who their bosses are, a major manhunt is launched and the police scour the country looking for the don. But in this case, there was no need to do that. Not only is Bishnoi comfortably ensconced in a Gujarat jail where, apparently, other police forces can interrogate him only with special permission, he has been in jail since 2014, the year the BJP-led NDA government came to power at the centre.

An international gang

Bishnoi is also the star of the growing rift between India and Canada. A few days ago, the battle took on a new dimension when both countries exchanged angry accusations and senior diplomats left their posts to return home. The quarrel dates back to the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in 2023.

At first, the murder was regarded as part of a gang war but later the Canadians claimed that the killers had been sent to assassinate Nijjar by India’s spy agencies. The murder had been contracted to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, they claim.

Whatever your views on the Nijjar murder, there is no doubt that the incident has been shamelessly exploited by Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister, to win favour with Khalistani extremists in Canada whose electoral support he depends on. India has frequently complained to Canada about the safe haven that it offers Khalistanis, about threats to Indian diplomats and about the efforts of these Khalistanis to export the message of hatred back to Punjab

So, the Canadian story should not be taken at face value. But it is odd that Bishnoi’s name crops up again in this murder. And the Canadians are expected to soon offer witness testimony.

As odd as all this is, nothing is as strange as the way in which Bishnoi has apparently managed to become a 21st-century counterpart of Dawood Ibrahim, while sitting in an Indian jail. When he was sent to prison in 2014, Bishnoi was 22. If the Indian government’s version is accurate then he managed to become an international gangster by the age of 32, while staying in jail the whole time. The authorities say that he organised a network of 700 shooters and set up outposts of his gang all over the world, while he was still sitting in a jail cell.

Nor has his motivation been convincingly explained. The standard version is that Bishnoi has it in for Salman Khan because the actor was once accused of shooting a black buck. The buck is sacred to the Bishnoi community.

When an attempt was made on Salman Khan‘s life several months ago, Bishnoi was said to have been behind it. When Siddique was murdered, it was once again said that Bishnoi had taken revenge for the killing of the black buck because Siddique and Salman were friends.

Bishnoi was five years old when Salman was accused of killing the black buck. So either this was a formative childhood experience that led to a life of crime or this story is a lie.

An all-purpose bogeyman

Why is Bishnoi at the centre of so many high-profile murder cases? And how has he managed to become a criminal genius under the watchful eye of the Indian government, which keeps him in custody?

The government says that Bishnoi has access to mobile phones in jail, makes video calls all over the world (he even gave a video interview) and runs everything by telephone. This is possible, but outside of the world of Bollywood gangster movies, not entirely plausible.

Two other theories have been offered. The first is that he has cosied up to the authorities in jail and agreed to become an all-purpose bogeyman. Whenever there is a murder or a high-profile crime, the police blame it on Bishnoi. They say they are unable to interrogate him but that he remains the primary suspect. This suits the police because crimes that would otherwise be regarded as unsolved are now laid at Bishnoi’s door. Bishnoi is so cosy with the authorities that he sees no reason to deny these allegations. In fact, he may even welcome the notoriety.

The second theory is that the government has co-opted Bishnoi. This is not as bizarre as it sounds. Throughout history, spy agencies have used criminals. Russia’s FSB has strong ties to the country’s mafia. Testimony before Congress demonstrates that the CIA used the mafia to interfere in Cuban affairs and to try and kill Fidel Castro.

Even in India, it seems fairly clear that agencies were in close touch with gangsters hostile to Dawood Ibrahim when the effort to bring him down was at its peak.

So even if the Canadians are lying when they say that Indian agencies ordered the killing of Nijjar through Bishnoi, it does not automatically follow that they are wrong to say that Bishnoi has links with Indian agencies.

And then there is the matter of the sudden rise of posts on social media praising or glorifying Bishnoi from pro-government accounts. In an interview from jail, Bishnoi claimed to be a nationalist who hates Pakistan and Khalistanis. This is a position that some social media posts in his favour echo.

It is curious that, while the government’s official position is that Bishnoi is public enemy number one, some of those who support the government on social media believe that he is a hero.

I don’t know if we will ever be able to conclusively establish whose side Bishnoi is on. But one thing is clear. If the government is telling the truth and he is just another prisoner with no official patronage, then Bishnoi is the greatest criminal of this or any other century. He has been able to recruit an international gang from inside a prison cell by the age of 32 and organises murders all over the world, while still in the custody of the government.

Even Dawood Ibrahim never managed that.

Vir Sanghvi is a print and television journalist, and talk show host. He tweets @virsanghvi. Views are personal.

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)