IN 2021, when a Delhi Police team on the trail of a murder accused landed up in a village in Punjab’s Sangrur district, they were in for a surprise. It turned out that the man they were after — Delhi-based Mohammad Shahrukh, an associate of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi — had squeezed in a quick visit to an unadvertised horse auction.
The police inquiry revealed that while the winning bid, of Rs 95 lakh, was made by a baba who headed a dera in the state, the second highest bid, at Rs 90 lakh, was by a representative of actor Salman Khan. With the actor not on the scene, Shahrukh had turned his attention to the winning baba and decided to make some money off him – allegedly extorting Rs 1 crore from him.
Police say that until they stumbled on the horse auction, they hadn’t realised how closely the Bishnoi gang had been monitoring actor Salman Khan’s movements, purportedly over him shooting a blackbuck in 1998. It’s an obsession that has continued to this day, with the gang issuing multiple threats to Salman, including firing outside his house in November 2023 and the October 12 killing of NCP leader Baba Siddique, the actor’s close friend.
Over the past two years, Bishnoi’s name has cropped up in connection with some of the most headline-grabbing crimes – from the killing of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala on June 6, 2022, to Canada’s recent allegation that “agents” of the Indian government were collaborating with the Bishnoi gang to spread terror on Canadian soil, a charge that India has denied.
All this, while the man himself has been in jail since 2014 after his first shootout with the police at a picket en route to Rajasthan’s Salasar Balaji Temple. He is currently lodged in Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Central Jail.
Despite his decade-long incarceration, Bishnoi’s network has only grown, states the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its 128-page chargesheet filed in March 2023 in an Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case against him and 15 others. Likening his rise to that of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, the agency believes that from his jail cell, Bishnoi controls a gang of “700 operatives, 300 among them from his home state Punjab”.
Dismissing these allegations, Bishnoi’s advocate Rajani told The Indian Express, “No phone has been recovered from Bishnoi in jail. There is no mode of communication which has been established by any investigative agency.”
Born Balkaran Brar, there are several stories surrounding why and how he became “Lawrence Bishnoi”, a name he adopted while in school. He reportedly told a Delhi Police Special Cell team that it was suggested by his paternal aunt and that “Lawrence sounded better”.
Sitting on a cot under a banyan tree in Fazilka district’s Dotaranwali village, Bishnoi’s ancestral village, his cousin Ramesh Bishnoi, 50, tells The Indian Express that the family had never imagined in their wildest dreams that “our child would turn out like this”.
“Our family has always been wealthy. Bishnoi’s father was a constable with the Haryana Police and owns 110 acres in the village. Bishnoi always wore expensive clothes and shoes. In fact, even now, his family spends Rs 35-40 lakh annually on him in jail,” says Ramesh, who last saw the gangster around a decade ago when he was brought to Abohar for a court hearing.
The NIA chargesheet traces Bishnoi’s evolution into a criminal mastermind, starting 2008, when he went behind bars for the first time, allegedly for firing at a rival during the students’ union elections at Panjab University (PU). He was then a student of law at PU in Chandigarh. According to his police dossier, 18 of the 84 cases registered against Bishnoi since 2008 were filed while he was in college, where he was part of the Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU).
It was student politics, the dossier states, that brought him close to Sampat Nehra, Virender Pratap Singh alias Kala Rana, Satwinderjit Singh alias Goldy Brar and Amandeep Multani – men who would end up being part of his gang’s core team. These associations furthered Bishnoi’s descent into the world of crime, triggered by a spat he was embroiled in during his SOPU days. “While campaigning for a nominee in 2008, Bishnoi and the others got into a spat with students from a rival faction,” an officer says.
Police reports say Bishnoi’s friend fired the first warning shot and others followed suit. Five days later, “yaaron ka yaar (an extremely loyal friend)” Bishnoi and seven others reportedly set fire to the car belonging to a person campaigning for a rival candidate. “Bishnoi and his eight friends were arrested within 10 days. In jail, he met Ranjeet Dupla, an arms supplier who currently runs a transport business in the US. The duo introduced each other to their criminal acquaintances,” the officer says.
Two months after he stepped out of jail, Bishnoi, who had a fondness for bodybuilding and expensive clothes, got caught up in college elections once again. “He would visit other colleges and get into spats with rival candidates. Several cases were registered against him, but all of them were quashed after both parties arrived at a compromise,” an officer says.
In 2010, after a failed attempt at contesting for SOPU president, he allegedly assaulted his rival and ended up in custody. Out on bail, in 2011, he contested the SOPU election once again for the same post. This time, he won.
In 2012, Bishnoi graduated from Panjab University with an LLB degree, but he and his friends continued to dabble in student politics of the most violent kind. In 2013, he nominated a SOPU candidate for the president’s post. While campaigning, Bishnoi and his associates allegedly killed the rival nominee and fled.
“His luck ran out when he was caught at a police picket in 2014, while on his way to a Rajasthan temple,” the officer says.
Police custody, however, failed to end Bishnoi’s run. By now, he had allegedly consolidated his position as a gang leader. In 2015, during a court appearance, he escaped police custody, allegedly to avenge his cousin’s murder. Bishnoi was later arrested from Punjab’s Fazilka.
“Around this time, with Bishnoi in jail, his friend Goldy Brar started operating the gang,” an officer says. Lodged in jail along with his close associate Sampat Nehra, who was arrested by the Haryana STF in Hyderabad in 2018 for allegedly planning to kill Salman Khan, Bishnoi joined hands with gangster Kala Jathedi, though the two fell out a few months ago. Police say that while they were together, the Bishnoi-Jathedi gang committed over 30 murders in Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana.
Among Bishnoi’s biggest rivals was Davinder Bambiha, who allegedly ran an extortion racket in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, and was killed in a police encounter in 2016. The inter-gang rivalry often led to shootouts in Chandigarh, Delhi and Punjab. The gangs not only fought over protection money, but for supremacy over the Punjab music industry and kabaddi players.
In 2021, Bishnoi had told the police that he “wanted to leave the crime world and live peacefully”. In 2023, he was asked the same question. This time, however, he said, “I have been in jail for the last 10 years and it’s very unlikely that I will come out now. I want to become the Number 1 criminal in the country.”
Goldy Brar
With Lawrence Bishnoi in jail, Satwinderjit Singh aka Goldy Brar is known to be the lynchpin of the gang, acting as the handler, assigning tasks, and arranging for weapons and other logistics for the gang to carry out criminal activities.
Declared a “designated terrorist” by the Home Affairs Ministry in January this year, Goldy, 30, has been on the radar of intelligence and investigative agencies for a while. On August 15, 2017, he left for Canada on a study visa.
With a string of cases linked to him, including murder, attempted murder, extortion and cases under the narcotics Act, UAPA and Arms Act, among others, according to the latest dossier of the Punjab Police, Goldy is suspected to be hiding in the US at present. Though he was acquitted in four cases before he moved to Canada, the other cases were registered against him after he started operating the gang from abroad.
Goldy Brar
Hailing from Muktsar in Punjab, Goldy, the son of a former Punjab Police Assistant Sub-Inspector, shot into the spotlight after he claimed responsibility for the May 29, 2022, killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala in Mansa district. In June 2022, India got a Red Corner Notice issued against him from the Interpol. In May 2023, his name figured in the list of Canada’s 25 most wanted fugitives.
Goldy’s association with Bishnoi dates back to their college days in Chandigarh, where they dabbled in student politics and allegedly resorted to strongarm tactics.
Sampat Nehra
Sampat Nehra alias Balkari, another key associate and a sharpshooter in the Bishnoi gang, is the son of a retired Chandigarh Police Assistant Sub-Inspector. Lodged in Bathinda Central Jail since June 2018, Nehra, 34, took over the gang’s operations after Bishnoi’s arrest in 2014.
According to the Punjab Police’s official dossier on him, Nehra, who originally hails from Kalauri in Rajasthan’s Churu district, grew up in Chandigarh’s Sector 26 police colony.
A promising athlete, he was an undergraduate student of a college affiliated to Panjab University when he got involved with the Student Organisation of Punjab University (SOPU). It was during the 2012 students’ union elections that Nehra came in contact with Bishnoi, kickstarting his journey into the world of crime.
Sampat Nehra
While Bishnoi graduated from law college in 2012, Nehra, in his second year of college in 2013, failed two subjects.
According to the police, Nehra, who allegedly provided hideouts to gangsters in Punjab, Rajasthan and Chandigarh, has over 65 criminal cases registered against him in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chandigarh for offences including murder, attempt to murder, snatching, carjacking, robbery, dacoity and extortion.
Arrested in June 2018 from Hyderabad, Nehra told the Haryana Police’s Special Task Force that he had been tasked with eliminating actor Salman Khan and had even conducted a recce of his house.
Hashim Baba
A dreaded gangster, Hashim Baba, 42, grew up in Delhi’s Gokulpuri, after his family shifted there from a village near UP’s Aligarh. Police say he dropped out of school after Class 8 and joined his father’s business — selling footwear.
By 2001, Hashim came in contact with local gangsters and the first case against him, under the Arms Act, was registered in 2002. Thereafter, the police say, he became involved in petty crimes in the area. Hashim met Bhisnoi, then a relatively unknown gangster, in Tihar jail in 2019. While Bishnoi has been moved to a Gujarat prison, Hashim is still in Tihar jail.
Hashim Baba
An officer says the duo formed an alliance to undercut the influence of rival gangs. As part of the deal, Bhishnoi’s gang in Delhi started getting ammunition from Baba. The police say the two gangs continue to work together.
According to his dossier, Hashim formally joined the Abdul Nasir gang in 2007. In 2010, allegedly ashamed over Hashim’s rising notoriety in north-east Delhi, his father moved back to Aligarh.
By 2014, Hashim was a dreaded name in Delhi. With Nasir in jail and feeling inadequately compensated for working for just one gang, Hashim started supplying arms to other gangs. In 2018 and 2019, two cases were registered against Hashim under MCOCA, the police say. By then, Hashim had created his own gang. Since his arrest in 2019 — and despite 16 cases against him — Baba continues to wield influence from Tihar.
Vikramjeet Singh
Until his deportation from the UAE and his arrest by the NIA in July 2023, Vikramjeet Singh Brar alias Vicky was Bishnoi’s man in the Middle East. According to the NIA, while in the UAE, Vikramjeet handled the gang’s financials and provided logistics to gang members to carry out criminal activities.
Currently lodged in a jail in Rajasthan , he hails from Dingawala village in the state’s Hanumangarh district. Police say Vikramjeet came in contact with Bishnoi at Panjab University, where both were part of university’s student politics.
According to Punjab police, Vikramjeet left for Dubai on November 4, 2020, on a tourist visa. Wanted in at least 11 cases of murder, attempt to murder and extortion, among others, he also had 11 lookout notices against him based on requests from the police in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Vikram Brar
The 2022 murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala saw Vikramjeet getting caught in the crosshairs of investigative agencies. With an Interpol Red Corner Notice against him, he was eventual deported from the UAE. According to the NIA, Vikramjeet had “actively helped” Goldy Brar execute Moosewala’s murder.
Vikramjeet’s name also figures in a Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) terror module busted by the Faridkot Police in 2021. According to the Punjab Police, the module members had attempted to kill a Dera Sacha Sauda follower and the key accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case.
(With inputs from Kamaldeep Singh Brar, Fazilka, Navjeevan Gopal)
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