The high-profile murder of a Punjabi rapper, repeated death threats against a Bollywood star and the assassination of a Mumbai-based politician earlier this month are all said to be the work of one of India's most feared gangsters, Lawrence Bishnoi.
The latest addition to this list is the RCMP's claim that the Bishnoi gang is targeting members of the pro-Khalistan movement on Canadian soil, allegedly at the behest of the Indian government.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin named the Bishnoi group last Monday during a powerful press conference in which the Mounties outlined allegations that top Indian diplomats in Canada were involved in criminal activity. Gauvin specified that investigators believe the gang has “connections with agents of the Indian government.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also made the explicit connection last week during his testimony before a commission investigating foreign interference.
He explained that diplomats collected information about Canadians who were “at odds” with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and then passed that information to “the highest levels” of the Indian government before passing it on to “criminal organizations like Lawrence Bishnoi.” “were passed on to a gang” and ended in “violence against Canadians on site”.
VIEW | Trudeau mentions Bishnoi gang in parliamentary testimony:
Trudeau refers to the Bishnoi gang
During his testimony last week at the foreign interference inquiry, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau referred to Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
Indian officials have dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and in turn accused Canada of harboring violent members of a group demanding the creation of a separate Sikh homeland called Khalistan and claimed the ruling Liberals were trying to coax votes from the country's large Sikh population gain community.
Last Thursday, India's foreign ministry pointed out that there were 26 extradition requests pending for gangsters, including members of the Bishnoi group, whom India wanted to be sent back and prosecuted, which it said Canada had ignored.
“This is a contradiction in terms that we do not understand,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said, calling it “really strange” that Canada is linking Indian government agents to the same gangsters India says it wants extradited .
Growing awareness
The RCMP citation is another example of the growing international influence of 31-year-old Bishnoi, whose profile has continued to grow despite his nine years in prison.
Bishnoi's group may have begun its criminal journey with small-scale intimidation attempts in student politics on a university campus in Punjab, but the gangster's reach now extends not only across North America but also “Europe and the Gulf States, as well as other areas with significant Punjabi diaspora- Communities”. said Delhi-based journalist Deepak Bhadana, who has spent the last few years investigating Bishnoi's activities for the News9 television channel.
Indian investigators estimate that Bishnoi controls a gang of 700 members in several Indian states, with Punjab police tracking down about 2,500 known hideouts used by the group's killers in that state alone.
Khalistan movement supporters gather in front of the Indian Consulate in Toronto on September 25, 2023. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
There are more than 30 criminal cases pending against Bishnoi himself.
The general assumption is that the gang's key operations, ranging from extortion to targeted killings, are orchestrated by Bishnoi behind bars using cell phones and encrypted messages.
Gurmeet Chauhan, a senior official in the Punjab Anti-Gangster Task Force, told BBC News that Bishnoi “runs his gang seamlessly from prison without having to coordinate everything.”
“Unlike other gangsters who are confined to one region, he thinks big,” Chauhan added.
Not born into a crime family
Because Bishnoi's activities and influence have only increased during his incarceration, some believe he enjoys some level of protection from the state or other powerful allies.
“In India, we know that these gangsters operate with political support,” said Jupinderjit Singh, deputy editor of The Tribune newspaper in Chandigarh, a city in northern India. “Gangsters cannot thrive here without the support of politicians.”
Bishnoi's rise to the top of India's criminal ranks was an “aberration” because he was not born into a criminal family, said Singh, who recently published the book “Who Killed Moosewala?” The spiraling history of violence in the Punjab.
Sidhu Moose Wala was a Punjabi rapper whose shooting in May 2022 shocked India and its diaspora communities. Bishnoi has denied involvement in the murder, but he and his younger brother Anmol are the main suspects, along with Goldy Brar, one of Bishnoi's closest associates, who Indian police believe is helping to drive the gang from its base in from Canada.
Brampton, Ontario-based Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala was shot and killed in Punjab, India, in 2022. (Sidhu Moose Wala/Facebook)
Bishnoi grew up in a relatively wealthy landowning family in Punjab, with a policeman father and mother who gave him a British name, sent him to the local convent school at a young age, and dreamed that their son would become a lawyer.
Singh said Bishnoi got involved in violence and extortion while studying at the university in Chandigarh but really grew into the gangster lifestyle after his first stint in prison.
“He should be kept in a separate cell [ward]“But he openly met and interacted with very hardened criminals,” including terrorists and gangsters, Singh said. “When he comes out, he’s a different person.”
Bishnoi has been incarcerated since 2015, moving from prison to prison in different parts of India before ending up at his current location, Sabarmati Prison in Gujarat state. Many experts say this brought him into contact with prisoners entrenched in India's criminal underworld and allowed Bishnoi to expand his network very quickly.
Underground rivalries
Recent events have fueled fears that Bishnoi's gang is seeking to seize control of Mumbai's criminal underworld, which could lead to more violence.
On October 13, police officers were seen standing near the gunfire marks where Nationalist Congress Party politician Baba Siddique was shot dead in Mumbai, India. (Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)
A member of the group claimed on social media that Baba Siddique, an influential 66-year-old politician, was shot dead on the busy streets of central Mumbai on October 12, bringing back dark memories of the gangland killings that dominated the city in the 1990s .
Local media reports on the politician's killing said that Mumbai police had repeatedly asked that Bishnoi be moved from his prison in Gujarat to one in Maharashtra state where he could answer new charges – but requests for a move were pending rejected by India's Home Ministry of Affairs.
Last April, shots were fired outside Bollywood star Salman Khan's home in Mumbai. Bishnoi had publicly vowed to kill Khan after accusing him of poaching two blackbuck antelope, a revered species of the Hindu sect to which Bishnoi belongs. Bishnoi and his brother were again named as prime suspects in the case.
Singh said that like other high-profile Indian gangsters, Bishnoi is building his personal mythology and stoking fears about his immense reach.
“Ever since Lawrence Bishnoi entered the world of crime, all he has said is, 'I have to do something big every few months,'” said the investigative journalist.
The aim is to “maintain the fear of his name” and to increase his “brand value”, which increases with every media report about a new alleged crime.
A “stupid” statement
According to Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Delhi-based think tank Institute for Conflict Management, the Canadian police statement is just that.
“I think the RCMP's statement is extremely unfortunate, if not stupid,” Sahni said, calling it “nonsensical” that investigators would call the Bishnoi group by name without being sure of the alleged connection between the gangsters and the Government of India could prove with solid evidence would hold up in court.
Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Delhi-based think tank Institute for Conflict Management, said the Canadian government's decision to name Lawrence Bishnoi in its probe into foreign interference was “highly unfortunate, if not stupid.” (Salimah Shivji/CBC)
“The Indian government has built the Khalistani threat,” Sahni told CBC News in an interview at his Delhi office. “And the Canadian government, through statements like this, is building the power of this criminal group not only in India but also.” [also] in Canada.”
Journalist Deepak Bhadana also questioned what Canadian police were trying to achieve by naming the Bishnoi gang.
“He was named [as linked to] A lot and that changes little,” said Bhadana. “I don’t think it helps anyone except Bishnoi.”
Well-known Bishnoi gang members, who often like to publicize their exploits on social media, did not mention the RCMP's statements in any posts.
Singh said Bishnoi used the security of the prison, where he was relatively protected from rival gang members, to his advantage. But the journalist, who has studied interrogation transcripts and other court documents, believes Bishnoi is fully aware that he will not be safe behind bars for long given his rapidly growing influence.
“Gangsters like Bishnoi know in their hearts that they live by the gun and die by the gun.”