 "Both Venkatesh Garg (left) and Bhanu Rana (right) are accused in multiple criminal cases.")
Indian security agencies have arrested two of the country’s most wanted gangsters, Venkatesh Garg and Bhanu Rana, who were running their gangs from abroad.
Officials confirmed that Garg was arrested in Georgia, while Rana was arrested in the United States. Both men are reportedly set to be deported to India soon, according to an NDTV report. The arrests are being hailed as a major breakthrough against organised crime being managed from foreign soil.
Everything about Venkatesh Garg and Bhanu Rana
The two arrested gangsters were central figures in cross-border crime. Venkatesh Garg, a resident of Narayangarh in Haryana, had fled India and was living in Georgia, where he was allegedly recruiting youth from North Indian states and running an extortion syndicate in partnership with Kapil Sangwan, another gangster based overseas. Garg is wanted in over ten criminal cases, including the high-profile murder of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader in Gurugram.
Bhanu Rana, from Karnal in Haryana, is a long-time associate of the notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang and faces multiple cases across Haryana, Punjab, and Delhi. He was also directly linked to a grenade attack in Punjab; in June, associates arrested with weapons admitted they were acting on Rana’s instructions.
Sources indicate that these arrests expose a wider network, as more than two dozen Indian gangsters are believed to be living and operating abroad, running extensive extortion and smuggling rackets by hiring operatives within India. Authorities are stressing that the arrests are a critical step in dismantling this transnational criminal infrastructure. Security agencies are now focusing on the upcoming deportations, which are expected to yield vital intelligence for crippling the overall cross-border operations.