The 'bloody saga' of how Lawrence Bishnoi gained a foothold in organised crime scene of Rajasthan

The cold-blooded murder of Sukhdev Singh Gogamedhi and subsequently Lawrence Bishnoi gang claiming the responsibility has once again brought to the fore the bloody consequences emerging out of rivalries in organised crimes… 

Since 2014, Rajasthan has witnessed several such murders involving rivalries in organised crimes where the name of notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi has emanated directly or indirectly. In effect, Lawrence Bishnoi has been able to gain a foothold in the organised crimes of Rajasthan.

Bishnoi who is a resident of Bhavwla in Fazilka, Punjab is situated very close to the border area of Rajasthan. In 2008, Bishnoi while pursuing law at Punjab University began to realise the huge margins involved in the illegal sale and smuggling of liquor on the Punjab-Rajasthan and Haryana border, which was very close to the area where Bishnoi resided. Though not on a large scale, Bishnoi got involved in this crime to fund his campaign during his stint in student politics.

In 2014, Bishnoi went to Rajasthan for the first time when, during a religious visit to Salasar Balaji, he reportedly got into a fight with one of the commuters due to rash overtaking and how the involvement of cops led one of the associates of Bishnoi to shoot a cop to intimidate them.

When Bishnoi was jailed, he only strengthened his network of gangsters to influence the organised crime scene of several states of North India including Rajasthan.

In 2014, Bishnoi was reportedly successful in planning and organising the murder of Khan Pahalwan in Hanumangarh. Pahalwan was one of the foremost smugglers of liquor in Rajasthan. In carrying out this crime, Bishnoi was reportedly helped by Sampat Nehra, a resident of Churu whom Bishnoi had helped in getting admission to Punjab University.

It has been alleged that Sampat Nehra who is currently lodged in Bathinda Jail had also planned the recent murder of Sukhdev Singh Gogamedhi.

With the murder of Pahalwan, Bishnoi had gained a foothold in the illegal liquor business of Rajasthan. From 2015 to 2016 besides Sampat Nehra, Bishnoi reportedly built strong networks with gangsters like Kala Rana (Virender), Deepak Tinu, Kala Jathedi and Raju Basodi. Most of these gangsters helped Bishnoi in the illegal business of liquor.

In 2016, while in Jodhpur Jail, Bishnoi got in touch with the younger brother of Anandpal Singh a prominent gangster then. Together they planned and were successful in murdering Sardar, their rival.

In 2017, the influence of Bishnoi began to be felt in Rajasthan when in Jodhpur, gunshots were fired by Bishnoi's men to intimidate Dr Sunil Chandak of Shree Ram Hospitals, a diamond merchant and a travel agency owner.

It is also believed that Jordan, a gangster from Ganganagar was allegedly shot dead by Lawrence's men. The threat of Bishnoi became further real when his group claimed the responsibility of Vasudev Irani after the latter refused to pay extortion money and also hurled abuses at Lawrence's men.

Following the murder of Irani, Bishnoi and his men were able to extract protection money amounting to rupees five crore and rupees two crore from businessmen LD Mittal and Jugal Rathi respectively.

The deal between Mittal and Rathi was also mentioned by Rohit Godara, an associate of Bishnoi, in a social media post while justifying their reason for murdering Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi.

Besides the liquor business, Bishnoi then got into crimes of illegal mining, sale of opium and extortion of money. The proceeds of crime used for these crimes was in turn used for the purchase of weapons and even sending some of the gangsters abroad.