Sometime in 2020, when the Delhi Police’s Special Cell prepared a dossier on Lawrence Bishnoi after questioning him, one section on his future plans recorded that he wanted to “leave the crime world and live peacefully”.
Bishnoi then spoke about how he wanted to do something good in sports because he had always been interested in them. He had described in detail how, in the early 2000s, he was once a budding athlete in school, even practised the 1500m race for the state open Athletic championship around 2008, and practised regularly at the Punjab University grounds.
In hindsight, six years later, police officers who interrogated him believe Bishnoi was merely misleading them. He had no intention of leaving the criminal world and, instead, continued to expand his empire year after year.
And that is precisely what he did.
From that interrogation room in Lodhi at the Delhi police’s special cell sometime in 2020, when he lied about waiting to leave the crime world and living peacefully, Lawrence Bishnoi and his gang have only grown bigger. Bishnoi, who started the gang with his school and college friends on the grounds of Punjab University around 2008-10, spread from Punjab to parts of North India across several states.
Even as Bishnoi has shuttled between jails across Delhi, Rajasthan and Gujarat over the past six years, his associates have fled India, set up networks abroad, and are running their operations from outside the country.
The attack on actor Tiger Shroff is the latest and in continuation of the many infamous killings by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang - from that of Punjab singer and Congress leader Sidhu Moosewala in 2022 to Mumbai legislator Baba Siddiqui in 2024.
The start
It isn’t clear why Bishnoi quit sports and entered crime, but police records show he was sucked into university politics around 2008-2009. Sometime in 2008, Bishnoi was jailed too, when he assaulted a rival candidate for the Panjab University Students Union (PUSU).
Bishnoi, a member of the Students of Panjab University (SOPU), campaigned for another person. The two groups were arch rivals. The dossier on Bishnoi’s first crime lists a failed murder attempt when he shot at the PUSU group’s candidate, Uday, but the man survived. Bishnoi, who was then arrested for murder, served 1.5-2 months in prison.
According to Bishnoi’s interrogation, it was during those two months that he met a man named Ranjeet Dupla, who had lived in the US before and was arrested in Punjab for smuggling arms.
“Dupla helped buy weapons for Bishnoi and his friends Sampat Nehra(jailed gangster arrested for attempting to kill Salman Khan) and Kala Jathedi(who would later be one of Delhi’s most wanted men). After coming out of jail, Bishnoi then bought his first car, a Mahindra Bolero for him and his gang,” the dossier said.
After coming out of prison, Bishnoi began controlling the student union at the university by taking over the SOPU party. It was during those days that his groups got into fights with the other groups over student politics. He even contested the 2010 university President elections but failed to win. After the election, he was jailed for the second time for 20-25 days when he attacked his rival candidate and broke the man’s leg.
His then friend Goldy Brar, who would later head the Bishnoi gang while hiding in Canada and the US, was also arrested in the same case. The FBI in the US has recently designated Brar as one of its top fugitives.
Even as Bishnoi’s violence remained confined to student politics and he settled disputes and fights among student groups, one fight was significant. At a government college in Muksar, Punjab, during the elections, Bishnoi had fielded his candidate. On the other side was Avtaar of the PUSU group. One evening, during campaigning, Bishnoi, Brar and four others shot Avtaar dead. That was Bishnoi (also Goldy Brar’s) first murder.
The year was 2013.
The rise
Many police officers who have tracked criminal gangs in North India believe Bishnoi, whose meteoric rise began after 2013, used social media to expand his influence. He and his aides used Facebook extensively, first to show their presence and, in later years, to recruit people into their gang.
“If you look at it closely, Bishnoi has been in jail for more than 10 years now. But he continues to be on the news because of social media. Look at the number of fan pages he has on Facebook or Instagram. In fact, the Bishnoi gang was the first to confess to their hits on Facebook. While Bishnoi was in prison, his aide Goldy Brar used Facebook and later Instagram to issue threats, confess to murders and share videos of Lawrence Bishnoi during court visits. These and the attempted attacks on actor Salman Khan made the gang fashionable in North India, especially Punjab,” a second officer said.
One FIR dated August 26, 2002 against Bishnoi and his gang members by the NIA specifically talks about his use of social media.
“The members of the terrorist gangs are using cyberspace and social media to publicise their acts to create deeper and widespread fear among the public. At large. Some of these gang members are absconding and operating from different parts of India and foreign countries,” the FIR said.
Police officials who have tracked Bishnoi’s criminal career since that interrogation room in 2020 believe the man has different sides. He presents a different side to the police and intelligence officers whenever they question him. At some point in 2023, prison officials in Delhi’s Tihar faced a peculiar problem. Bishnoi, who had by then become one of the most dreaded gangsters, had embraced freedom fighter Bhagat Singh as a hero. Officials were puzzled over the jailed gangster’s obsession with T-shirts printed with the photographs of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
At court appearances and in photos leaked on social media, Bishnoi wore Bhagat Singh’s T-shirts.
“He even claimed then he would not touch rice for some spiritual purpose. He had stopped eating rice and praying many times a day. This man has many sides to him, which we believe is to create an aura. He claims to be fighting for the respect of the Bishnoi community and wants revenge from Salman Khan. But that, too, is just a smokescreen for his criminal activities. Their only real job is to make money through extortion or contract killing and expand their criminal network,” an officer, who asked not to be named, said.
For a man who presents himself as spiritual, draws inspiration from Bhagat Singh and claims to defend the Bishnoi community, Lawrence Bishnoi has faced allegations not only of organised crime but also of terrorism, levelled by various police forces and central agencies.
Range of crime
A 2022 home ministry order directing the NIA to probe Bishnoi mentions his range of criminal activities, from smuggling drugs to weapons and contract killings and how the funds generated were being used to finance terror and recruit young ones in their gang.
In fact, one home ministry report mentions a conspiracy being hatched by Bishnoi and other members in India and abroad to carry out terrorist acts in the Union Territory of Delhi and other parts of the country.
Bearing similarities to the targeted killings and attempted hit on actor Tiger Shroff, the report said, “These members plan to execute spectacular heinous crimes including but not limited to targeted killings of prominent persons, with an intention to strike terror in the minds of the people of the country.”