New Delhi:
The so-called Lawrence Bishnoi gang has claimed responsibility for the attack on actor Tiger Shroff in Mumbai last evening and sent one of its 'representatives' named Anil Pandit to share a message behind the murder attempt.
Pandit, who is suspected to be operating from the US, said the gang had warned Shroff against working with actor Salman Khan, who has long been a target, but the younger actor did not listen to them.
Who exactly is Pandit, the man apparently carrying out attacks in India on behalf of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang?
According to sources, Pandit's journey began from Haryana's Panipat. His criminal antecedents have been to Canada, Thailand and Dubai before reaching the US. His name had surfaced in connection with several cases of firing and extortion in Haryana, Delhi and Pune. Some of the shooters used foreign-made weapons.
Pandit, 32, was originally from a village in Panipat. He had a passport and left the country in 2023 to go to Canada. After coming in touch with Randeep Malik, a gangster associated with Lawrence Bishnoi, he reached California in the US and allegedly joined the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Pandit, while based abroad, has used his network of shooters over the last six months to carry out criminal acts in India. Some of these include firing incidents in several locations in Panipat linked to extortion.
The Haryana Police and the Special Task Force (STF) took action and arrested the shooters involved in these cases. These incidents have made it crucial to investigate the potential links between criminal networks active in Haryana and gangs based abroad.
Pandit's name also emerged in connection with a shooting incident in Delhi. He was accused of orchestrating a shooting at a gym frequented by singer Guru Randhawa in Delhi's Paschim Vihar.
In this case, the Delhi Police's Crime Branch and Special Cell took action and arrested four shooters allegedly linked to Pandit. They used Signal app to keep in touch with Pandit and carried foreign-made weapons.
Some 15 days later after the Delhi shooting, another shooting was reported from a jewellery store in Pune, where his name surfaced again. The Maharashtra Police arrested the shooters, who turned out to have links with Pandit and another criminal called Shubham Lonkar, said to be an aide of Lawrence Bishnoi.
The three individuals who carried out the shooting in Pune are reported to be from Hanumangarh in Rajasthan. It was alleged they came to Pune specifically to carry out the attack.
Pandit's name had come up in a case of shooting at the car of singer Diler Kharakiya in Haryana over extortion.
Then, in Sonipat, the Delhi Police's Crime Branch and the Haryana STF conducted an operation during which a Lawrence Bishnoi gang shooter called Rohit Dahiya was injured.
All in all, some of the names linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang are: Randeep Malik, Harry Boxer, Harman Sandhu, Anil Pandit, Tyson Bishnoi and Shubham Lonkar.
Harmanveer Singh alias Harman Sandhu has also been in the news over cases related to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. He has links to the drug trafficking network of a criminal called Ravinder Singh Dhanda.
US agencies have identified his role in a conspiracy involving drug trafficking and the shipment of narcotics to other countries. Born in 1994 in Punjab, Sandhu has one more name - Hari Gautam.
In June this year, the US district court for the Central District of California issued an arrest warrant against him. He faces charges of a conspiracy to sell drugs to other countries. After this, he was arrested by officers of the California Highway Patrol in the US state.
That same month, the US announced 'Operation Hard Ball' in Los Angeles that cracked down on these three gangs - Lawrence Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Ravinder Dhanda.