From India to Canada, why all eyes are on the Lawrence Bishnoi gang

India’s ties with Canada have plunged to a new low. New Delhi has expelled six high-ranking Canadian diplomats and withdrawn its diplomats from Canada. The relationship between the two countries has been fraught since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last September publicly alleged a “potential” involvement of Indian officials in the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.

Ottawa says it has expelled six Indian diplomats including the High Commissioner Sanjay Verma after naming him and others as “persons of interest” in Nijjar’s killing. Now, the Canadian police have made fresh allegations against New Delhi, accusing “agents” of the Indian government of collaborating with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to “target” the South Asian community, specifically pro-Khalistani elements in Canada.

What is the Lawrence Bishnoi gang making waves in India and Canada? Let’s take a closer look.

The notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang

Named after Lawrence Bishnoi, the gang has 700 members, including sharpshooters, spread across India, according to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

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Born in Dhattaranwali village in Punjab’s Ferozepur district, Bishnoi, a 31-year-old gangster, has been in prison for roughly a decade. He is currently lodged in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad and is believed to be operating from inside the prison.

Bishnoi shifted to Chandigarh in 2010 to study at the University of Punjab. He became president of the Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) between 2011 and 2012, as per an Indian Express report.

His criminal activities seem to have started when he was a student. Bishnoi’s first FIR was for an attempt to murder, followed by another for trespass in April 2010, the newspaper noted.

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The Bishnoi gang operates across northern India, including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It also has a presence in Canada through its associates, according to India Today.

The gang has been involved in revenge killings due to gang rivalries. Bishnoi is facing two dozen cases of murders, attempts to murder, extortion and other crimes, reported Indian Express.

In the limelight in India

The Bishnoi gang shot to the limelight in India in 2022 when famous Punjabi singer and politician Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead in Mansa, Punjab.

Satwinder Singh, commonly known as Goldy Brar, a member of the gang, took responsibility for the murder. Brar, who went to Canada in 2017, is based in the North American country.

Brar, who was designated an “individual terrorist” by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is facing 54 cases in Punjab and Haryana, including 24 related to extortion.

The Bishnoi gang and its leader have remained in the headlines since then.

The gang is currently involved in allegedly issuing threats to Bollywood star Salman Khan. In April this year, two shooters reportedly from the Bishnoi gang fired multiple gunshots outside Khan’s Bandra residence in Mumbai.

They were later arrested. The gang’s targeting of Khan is being seen as a retaliation to the 1998 blackbuck poaching case involving the actor. Blackbucks are sacred for the Bishnoi community.

Now, the gang is again in the spotlight after the murder of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and veteran Maharashtra politician Baba Siddique, who was shot dead in Bandra on October 12.

The killing of Siddique, who is known to be close to Salman Khan, has been linked to the Bishnoi gang. A Mumbai police officer told Indian Express that Bishnoi’s targeting of Khan might be an attempt to gain notoriety.

As per PTI, the police suspect that Siddique was killed after a purported Facebook post surfaced claiming ”Jo Salman Khan aur Dawood gang ki help karega apna hisab-kitab laga ke rakhna (whoever helps Salman Khan and the Dawood gang, keep your accounts in order)”.

According to a senior Delhi Police officer, Bishnoi’s intent has gone beyond taking revenge, against Khan. “The gang is now trying to penetrate Bollywood, an area once ruled by Dawood Ibrahim, and set up its own D-Company,” the cop told PTI.

The NIA in its recent chargesheet compared the Bishnoi gang with Dawood’s D-Company, drawing similarities in the expansion of both criminal syndicates.

Bishnoi gang and Canada

On Monday (October 14), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) accused “agents” of the Indian government of indulging in “serious criminal activity” on Canadian soil.

“What we have seen is the use of organised crime elements, and it’s been publicly attributed to one organised crime gang in particular… the Bishnoi group is connected to the agents of India,” RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gaubin alleged in a presser.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme responded “yes” when asked whether the police were accusing the Indian government agents of “homicide, extortion, intimidation, and coercion”.

#WATCH | Ottawa, Ontario (Canada): "It (India) is targeting South Asian community but they are specifically targeting pro-Khalistani elements in Canada...What we have seen is, from an RCMP perspective, they use organised crime elements. It has been publically attributed and… pic.twitter.com/KYKQVSx7Ju

— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2024

“Evidence also shows that a wide variety of entities in Canada and abroad have been used by agents of the Government of India to collect information. Some of these individuals and businesses were coerced and threatened into working for the Government of India. The information collected for the Government of India is then used to target members of the South Asian community,” the RCMP said in a statement.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) of the RCMP has arrested four individuals in connection with Nijjar’s murder. At least three of the accused – Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh – have links to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, sources told Canada’s CBC News.

The fourth accused, Amandeep Singh, is also identified as an Indian national.

New Delhi has alleged Canada has become a safe haven for Khalistani elements and gangsters . In May, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on the arrest of the accused in Nijjar’s killing that “somebody may have been arrested there, police may have done some investigation, but the fact is a number of gangland people with organised crime links from Punjab have been made welcome in Canada.”

“We have been telling Canada, saying, ‘Look, these are wanted criminals from India. You have given them visas, you let them have come, many of them, in false documentation. And yet you allow them to live there’”, he added.

“If you decide to import for political purposes people with very dubious, actually very negative background, there will be issues. They have in some cases created problems in their own country as a result of their own policies.”

In June 2022, the Indian High Commission in Ottawa had flagged concerns to Canadian authorities over the involvement of gangsters operating from the North American nation in violent crimes in Punjab following Moose Wala’s murder.

In recent years, the Bishnoi gang has carried out several criminal activities in Canada. It is linked to a firing outside rapper AP Dhillon’s house in Canada in early September, as well as shooting outside Punjabi singer and actor Gippy Grewal’s residence in Canada last November. The gang has also claimed responsibility for killing alleged rival gang member Sukha Duneke in Canada last September.

With inputs from agencies