3 high-profile hits that added to jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s infamy

Lawrence Bishnoi’s growing infamy is built around three killings, of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022 in a Mansa village in Punjab, Canada-based Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023 in Surrey, Canada, and, most recently, former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique in Mumbai. The Moose Wala killing is believed to be retribution for the 2021 killing of one of Bishnoi’s friends; the Nijjar killing, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police allege, was at the behest of the Indian state; and police are investigating the contract killing angle in Siddique’s murder.

That Bishnoi, still only 32, was involved in three crimes across two countries, with varying motives is interesting, but not as much as the fact that he has orchestrated all this while in prison, where he has been for the past decade, since he was 22.

It is a decade in which Bishnoi had transformed from a student leader-turned-minor gangster into a global gang leader, with a network that is believed to extend to Canada, Germany, and the US. It is a decade that has seen around four dozen cases being registered against him in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.

Networking through ‘Dubba Calling’

“He has spent a good amount of time in Burail (Chandigarh), Bathinda, Patiala, Tihar and jails in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Because he was never lodged in solitary confinement inside the jails, he was able to mingle with fellow notorious gangsters,” said an SSP-rank officer, who has interrogated Bishnoi thrice. According to a senior Punjab Police official from the Anti-Gangster Task Force, Bishnoi runs his network from inside the jail using sophisticated mobile calling applications.

“In many cases, it was found that he would call his gang’s handlers sitting abroad who would further connect to a henchman from his mobile so that Bishnoi’s mobile number or IP address would not be available to the target. This is called ‘Dubba Calling’. In many cases, the arrested operatives of this gang have admitted that they got Bishnoi’s directions for a particular task through ‘Dubba Calling’ or in the form of voice messages sent from abroad,” the officer added. However, it’s astonishing that among 50-odd FIRs registered against Bishnoi none is of the recovery of a mobile phone from his custody.

According to an officer who asked not to be named, a large number of young people from Punjab are settled abroad, and Bishnoi has figured out a way to get them to do his bidding.

“It is wrong to say Bishnoi has specific number of members in his gang. I remember Bishnoi telling us that he can manage any task in any country where young people from India are settled,” he said.

Fazilka to Chandigarh to world of crime

Born in an affluent land-owning family, Bishnoi shifted to Chandigarh at the age of 19 from the sleepy border village of Fazilka. He was there to study and soon got into student politics.

His brushes with the law began almost immediately, with an attempt to murder case being registered against him the same year. Sure enough, the first cases against him in Chandigarh and Mohali were the outcome of student politics, but they laid the foundation for his entry into the world of crime.

In 2011, Youth Akali Dal leader Vicky Middukhera (now deceased) announced Bishnoi’s name as the president of Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU). It was his 2021 killing that Bishnoi was avenging by targeting Moose Wala, though a police probe into that crime does not point to the singer’s role.

Calling the shots from behind bars

By 2013, Bishnoi was deep in the world of organised crime, essentially protection and extortion rackets, and targeted killings. But by 2014, he was in jail.

In effect, much of his resume building has happened behind bars. In 2018, he hit national headlines with his threat to kill actor Salman Khan for poaching blackbuck hunting. The Bishnoi community considers the blackbuck sacred.

Bishnoi’s aide Sampat Nehra oversees operations in Haryana, while Goldy Brar, who is based in the United States, oversees operations outside India and in Punjab. Deepak Kumar, alias Tinu, Ravinder, alias Kali Rajput, and Sandeep, alias Kala Jatheri, are other aides of Bishnoi. Except Brar, all are in jail.