Who is Lawrence Bishnoi? How a notorious mob boss became involved in the Canada-India dispute

NEW DELHI: With diplomatic relations between India and Canada at loggerheads over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, attention is now turning to one of the South Asian country’s most notorious gangsters.

Earlier this month, Canadian police charged Lawrence Bishnoi with colluding with Indian government agents to kill and harass members of Canada’s Sikh diaspora.

This comes in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations last year that New Delhi was involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen – which India vehemently denies.

The Trudeau government has upped the ante in recent weeks by expelling India’s top diplomat from Canada after he refused to be questioned on the matter.

Bishnoi’s alleged involvement highlights what Canada says is the long arm of India’s criminal underworld and its ability to carry out violence far from home.

According to India’s federal anti-terrorism watchdog, Bishnoi is in his 30s and heads “one of the most feared terrorist syndicates” in South Asia.

His gang, described in Indian court records, numbers about 700 people and includes suspected militants and drug traffickers from Canada, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

The Trudeau government says Bishnoi worked with Indian officials to target dissidents abroad, particularly Sikh activists living in Canada who support the creation of an ethno-religious homeland in India called Khalistan.

Canada is investigating the Indian government’s involvement in the shooting last year of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian separatist activist who is considered a terrorist by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. New Delhi has repeatedly rejected allegations that officials were involved in the attack.

Bishnoi has been associated with Sikh militant groups in the past, which is ironic considering he is currently accused of attacking Canadians campaigning for Khalistan.

Court documents show that he and his gang have strong links with Sikh separatist elements, some of which operate in Pakistan.

India’s federal counterterrorism watchdog also said that Bishnoi and his associates were involved in the 2016 prison break of a suspected Khalistan separatist and that in 2022 they attacked a police facility in the northern state of Punjab using sophisticated weapons, including propelled grenades rocket.

Court documents show Bishnoi spent about a decade behind bars in India, convicted of several crimes dating back to 2010, when he was charged with trespassing with intent to commit armed robbery.

He gained a presence on social media by expressing grievances against famous Punjabi singers, Bollywood actors and Indian politicians.

Over the years, his videos on YouTube and Instagram, shot by fans, have gained hundreds of thousands of likes.

Canada’s allegations

Terminder Singh, a lawyer representing Bishnoi in Punjab, declined to comment on Canada’s accusations. “There was no proper investigation into these allegations,” he said.

“It is difficult to explain how a man in prison organizes attacks or extorts money.”

Canada has not yet published evidence linking Indian officials to Bishnoi.

Trudeau said his government only made the allegations public after Indian authorities rejected long-running, behind-the-scenes efforts to resolve the matter diplomatically.

In its rebuttals, India highlighted the lack of information in the public domain.

Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, said New Delhi also has a track record of distancing itself from Bishnoi, including asking Canada to extradite his gang members residing in the country.

“We informed Canada about them several years ago and recently also,” Jaiswal told reporters earlier this month. “No response has been received from Canada.”

Although Bishnoi is currently imprisoned in Gujarat state, some Indian officials still believe he is capable of carrying out criminal activities. India’s federal anti-terrorism watchdog, the National Investigation Agency, told a court last year that Bishnoi was so adept at operating from inside his cell that he felt no need to apply for bail.

Crime syndicate

Born in Dutranwala – a small town in Punjab near the India-Pakistan border – Bishnoi grew up in a relatively wealthy family, according to Indian police officials who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing investigations.

Court documents confirm that Bishnoi’s first brush with the law came during his student days, when he shot and killed a political rival.

Indian court documents show that Bishnoi began building his crime syndicate in 2013.

By the time he was in his early 20s, he had already been named in nearly a dozen criminal cases.

In 2022, Bishnoi claimed responsibility for the death of famous Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala, which catapulted him to the front pages of Indian newspapers.

The Bishnoi gang also claimed responsibility on social media for shooting dead politician Baba Siddique last month.

One Indian police official, who asked not to be named to discuss classified information, said Bishnoi loved his carefully cultivated image as a “patriotic gangster” and a dark hero who takes up crime to right a wrong.

Bishnoi is a gun for hire – he kills, extorts and threatens for profit, the officer said.

Links between the Indian political establishment and local criminal groups – including Bishnoi – are not unusual.

In December last year, Delhi Police arrested a former Indian intelligence agent on charges of extorting money from a businessman on Bishnoi’s behalf.

Agent Vikas Yadav is also wanted in the US for attempting to assassinate an American citizen who was actively promoting a separatist state for Sikhs, who mainly live in Punjab in northern India.

Yadav’s lawyer RK Handoo said the case was “false and the allegations baseless.”

Under previous governments, high-level commissions warned of links between the underworld and politicians, including coordination of attacks in South Asia.

What is new, however, is potentially striking in countries like the US, Canada and Australia – wealthy Western democracies that consider India a strategic partner.

As Canada and India continue to trade barbs, Modi has refrained from public comments.

However, during campaign rallies, the Indian Prime Minister credited his administration with pursuing and eliminating alleged criminals in other countries. This is a topic that former Prime Ministers of India have usually avoided touching upon.

“Under this strong government, our forces are killing terrorists on their own soil,” Modi said at a recent political rally in Jammu and Kashmir – Bloomberg