Mumbai:
Mumbai Police have been unable to interrogate gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, whose gang has been linked to at least four major crimes in the city over the last three years, the latest being Sunday's firing at actor Tiger Shroff over his "connections with Salman Khan", because a Union Home Ministry order bars his removal from Gujarat's Sabarmati Jail.
Amit Shah's ministry issued the order in August 2023 under Section 268 of the Criminal Procedure Code, prohibiting Lawrence Bishnoi's removal from the jail for interrogation by other agencies, with recent renewals issued under Section 303 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) that replaced the CrPC. Under the order, standard production warrants issued by courts and requests for custodial interrogation from agencies cannot be entertained. The central government said the action was taken to maintain public order and avoid the risk of violence while transporting him. Any agency seeking to question Lawrence Bishnoi can do so only by video link or within the jail premises, on the order of an appropriate court.
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Lawrence Bishnoi is not the first high-profile prisoner to be shielded this way.
In 2015, similar protection was given to underworld don Chhota Rajan, who was sent to Delhi's Tihar Jail after his arrest in Indonesia and deportation to India. In media interviews, Rajan, who is serving jail time in Tihar, claimed his life would be in danger in Mumbai as some officers in the Mumbai Police were working for his rival Dawood Ibrahim. Lawrence Bishnoi's younger brother Anmol, also lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, has been given similar protection ever since he was deported by the US last year.
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Facing multiple cases from Punjab to Rajasthan to Maharashtra and even abroad, Lawrence Bishnoi has been in Sabarmati Jail, Ahmedabad, since 2023. He has remained there even as his gang has allegedly killed and threatened people outside.
He became of particular interest to Mumbai Police in April 2024, after hitmen allegedly hired by his gang fired shots outside Galaxy Apartments in Bandra, the residence of actor Salman Khan, in what police said was a conspiracy to kill the actor.
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Salman Khan has been a target for a long time, and Bishnoi's gang has said the attacks on Tiger Shroff and others are due to their proximity to the superstar actor. After the assassination attempt on Tiger Shroff on Sunday, the gang repeated the warning that unless Salman Khan apologises to Lawrence and the animal-loving Bishnoi community -- apparently over his alleged involvement in a blackbuck hunting case -- "we will not spare anyone in your family, not even your pet dogs".
In October 2024, Bishnoi's men were linked to the killing of NCP leader Baba Siddique in Bandra. Although police named Bishnoi as an accused, they were again unable to secure his custody. Filmmaker Rohit Shetty later received an extortion threat.
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On Sunday evening, October 18 this year, three assailants fired at Tiger Shroff's car in Juhu. The Lawrence Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility in a social media post. Police caught the three suspects at the Kota railway station in Rajasthan on Monday. Police said initial investigation linked the shooters to gangster Anil Pandit, an associate of Bishnoi, and that the suspects planned to escape to Nepal. Pandit, reportedly in the US along with several others of the gang, issued the social media voice note claiming responsibility.
Mumbai Police have not been able to interrogate Bishnoi in any of these cases.
Many officers believe strict custodial interrogation is necessary to extract information from hardened criminals, and that virtual interrogation would serve no purpose. As a result, police have had to confine their cases to arresting foot soldiers and those who arranged funds and weapons for the conspiracies.
The Tiger Shroff case has drawn political attention even as the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government said those involved will not be spared. Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to seek withdrawal of the BNSS protection granted to Lawrence Bishnoi.