ST Picks: Lawrence Bishnoi India’s most notorious gangster

NEW DELHI – Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi may be notorious, but has his appeal.

Unfortunately for some Indian online marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, hawking gangster-themed products with his image for as little as 200 rupees (S$3.20) apiece has landed them in hot water.

Maharashtra cyber police said on Nov 7 that they had registered a case against sellers, along with online marketplaces such as Flipkart and Etsy, for selling T-shirts with pictures of Bishnoi, as well as gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who is India’s most wanted criminal.

The police say the merchandise glamorises a life of crime in young and impressionable minds.

“Such products, which idolise criminal figures, pose a significant risk to society by promoting a distorted image that could influence young minds negatively,” said the Maharashtra cyber department in a press release on Nov 7.

“This kind of idolisation of criminal elements not only erodes societal values but also trivialises the serious crimes associated with those individuals.”

Flipkart and Etsy did not respond to a request for comment.

The upsurge in interest comes even though Bishnoi has been incarcerated for the past 10 years. He was catapulted to international infamy in mid-October when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian police named his criminal syndicate as the hired gun in an alleged Indian government plot to intimidate and kill Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.

Bishnoi’s criminal syndicate has also been linked to high-profile cases in India, including repeated death threats against Bollywood star Salman Khan and the October killing of an Indian politician in Mumbai.

Those who have been tracking the 31-year-old gangster, who is currently serving time in the western state of Gujarat for a drug-smuggling offence, said the allegations by Canada have elevated him to new heights of notoriety.

“He is big, and he is getting bigger,” said Dr Ajai Sahni, founding member and executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management.

From prison, Bishnoi is believed to lead a network that reportedly runs from India to Canada, the US and Britain.

“In fact, his dramatic rise started after he went to jail in 2014. As far as criminal syndicates operating from jail go, it’s not something Lawrence Bishnoi invented, and it is not unique to India. It happens across the world. It is the safest modus operandi. The organised criminal doesn’t seek to challenge the authority of the state, and he will use intimidation and bribes and essentially be allowed to operate,” said Dr Sahni.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), a federal counterterrorism law enforcement agency, has linked him to Sikh separatist groups, although Bishnoi, who was born in Punjab, has said he opposes the creation of an independent Sikh state.

Sikh separatists want the separate state of Khalistan carved out of Punjab.

Bishnoi stated his opposition in a TV interview that he gave from prison in 2023, for which six Punjab police officials were suspended in October.

The officers provided a studio-like facility to facilitate the interview, said the Punjab and Haryana High Court, according to Indian legal news website Bar and Bench.

In Canada, investigations began after the June 2023 murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb.

Mr Trudeau accused Indian diplomats on Oct 16 of collecting information on Sikh separatists in Canada and handing it over to the “highest levels” within the Indian government. The information was passed on to criminal organisations, such as Bishnoi’s gang, which has links in countries that have a sizeable number of people from Punjab.

India has repeatedly dismissed Canada’s allegations, with bilateral ties cratering as a result.

It says, instead, that it has ongoing extradition requests for Canada to hand over members of gangs, including Bishnoi’s, to be prosecuted on terror charges.

Punjab native

Bishnoi was born into an affluent family, which owns several properties and large swathes of land in Punjab, and was reportedly named after British educationist and army officer Henry Lawrence.

While in college in the city of Chandigarh, he became involved in student politics and was arrested more than once for violence. It is believed he came into contact with criminal elements there, which facilitated his move into organised crime.

“The rise of Lawrence Bishnoi is a little different from the others. This man was educated in Punjab, and he is not short of money – he has got land and property. He is not one of those guys from the slums and making it like the Bombay underworld,” said Mr Yashovardhan Azad, a former special director in India’s Intelligence Bureau. Many gangsters in the Mumbai underworld rose from poor backgrounds.

Now in decline, Mumbai’s gangland was controlled by the most notorious criminals, including Dawood Ibrahim, who faces several terror charges and is believed to have fled to Pakistan. In 2003, Dawood was designated a global terrorist by the US.

Criminal experts said Bishnoi may be moving to fill the vacuum left by Dawood, whose network weakened following his disappearance.

Bishnoi’s syndicate was most likely behind the killing of Indian politician Baba Siddique, 66, who was shot dead near his son’s office in Mumbai on Oct 12. Twenty-three people have so far been arrested in connection with the case.

“His foray into Mumbai with Siddique’s murder appears to be aimed at displacing whatever remains of the Dawood Ibrahim gang. If he does that, he becomes No. 1,” said Dr Sahni.

Bishnoi himself came to national attention in 2018 for threatening Bollywood star Salman Khan, who was accused of poaching two blackbuck, an Indian antelope revered by the Bishnoi community to which the gangster belongs. The Bishnois, a Hindu religious sect, believe the blackbuck to be the manifestation of their founder, Guru Maharaj Jambaji.

The threats have continued over the years. Suspected members of Bishnoi’s gang fired shots outside the Bollywood star’s house earlier in 2024, for which Bishnoi’s brother Anmol claimed responsibility.

Mumbai police are reportedly planning to initiate extradition requests for Anmol Bishnoi from the US, where he was last spotted at a wedding in April 2023. In October, the Indian authorities announced a one million rupee reward for his arrest.

Lawrence Bishnoi has also been accused of masterminding the murder of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was gunned down near his village in May 2022, with police suspecting personal rivalries.

Over the years, Indian federal and state investigators have been probing Bishnoi and his gang – which NIA estimates to be 700-strong – for their cross-border links to terror outfits and drug-smuggling cartels.

In 2023, the NIA filed a charge sheet against 14 people, including Lawrence and Anmol Bishnoi, charging them with criminal conspiracy to carry out terror attacks or targeted killings of well-known social and religious leaders, movie stars, singers and businessmen.

“Besides having links with conspirators in Pakistan, the accused were also in contact with pro-Khalistan elements based in Canada, Nepal and other countries,” the NIA said in the charge sheet.

Still, Lawrence Bishnoi’s lawyer has dismissed all the allegations against his client, while also denying his links with terrorists.

“Nowadays, even when an ant gets a threat, Lawrence’s name comes up. There are many FIRs. Nothing has been proved,” India Today quoted Mr Rajni Khatri, identified as Bishnoi’s lawyer, as saying in an October article. An FIR (first information report) is filed by the police when a case is registered.

Agreeing that Bishnoi’s reputation sometimes precedes him, Mr Azad said: “When you become the king of the jungle, every stalking or fear is attributed to the king of the jungle. That is happening now.”