A Shooting in Bollywood

AS WITH EVERYTHING in the social media age, the visual makes the story viral, but that was just the icing on a cake with elements of movie superstars and underworld dons creating fiefdoms. That, in a nutshell, has been the resonance from the shooting outside the building where Salman Khan stays in Mumbai by two men on a motorcycle in the early hours of April 14. A CCTV footage that got it clearly has become fodder for innumerable WhatsApp for­wards. It wasn’t immediately certain how seriously this should be taken until the police revealed that the gang of an incarcer­ated gangster from Tihar Jail, Lawrence Bishnoi, was behind it.

The shooting evoked memories of a Mumbai that once used to be. In the 1980s and 1990s, the underworld got intimately interested in the film industry. The involvement ranged from film financing to production to outright extortion. But then came a great clean-up by the police through encounter killings. There was also the advent of corporate finance which meant filmmakers got access to legitimate capital. The present shoot­ing was a throwback and it wasn’t a surprise that the gangsters who did it weren’t from Mumbai, but from North India. Local criminals know to check their ambitions.

Those behind the shooting put up a Facebook post that said, as translated from Hindi, rather melodramatically: “We seek peace. If the price for going against injustice is war, then so be it. Salman Khan, we have done this to show you the trailer. So that you un­derstand our strength and don’t test it. This is the first and last warning. Next time, the bullets won’t be fired at just the house. As for Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel whom you consider gods, we have two dogs named after them. Otherwise, I don’t have a habit of talking too much.” The post is prefaced by salutations to gods and country. And in the end, it says “Lawrence Bishnoi Group” with these names under it: Goldy Brar, Rohit Godara, Kala Jathari. The post was put up by Anmol Bishnoi, the brother of Lawrence Bishnoi.

There is no clarity on what exactly they want. Media reports said that they had tried to get in touch with Salman Khan through a threatening email earlier and even though a some­what clumsy way to go about when it comes to communicat­ing with a superstar, it still leaves the motive a mystery. The Bishnoi gang have for some time been obsessed with Salman Khan but there seems to be no rationale for it except for a tangential fact that Khan was once involved in a famous poaching case a quarter-of-a-century ago, of a black buck, an animal that the Bishnoi community venerates. That is not what ordinarily motivates gangsters. Perhaps Khan’s father, Salim Khan, knew best when asked about the attack by a television channel and replied that there was nothing to talk about because it was just some criminals out to get publicity. Ironically, the allegation of a publicity stunt was something levelled against the family too, and they took it seriously enough for Khan’s brother Arbaaz to release a statement that said: “Our family has been taken aback by this shocking inci­dent that took place. Unfortunately, some people claiming to be close to our family and pretending to be the spokesperson have been making loose statements to the media saying it’s all a publicity stunt and the family remains unaffected which is not true and these views should not be taken seriously.”

While the Bishnoi gang might be in this for publicity, that does not mean the danger is not viscerally real. They have a long track record of killings and organised crime stretching beyond India. One of the signatories to that Facebook post, Goldy Brar, is the man behind the murder of the popular rap singer from Punjab, Sidhu Moose Wala, two years ago. That made every­one sit up and take notice of the gang. Moose Wala’s murder was professed by Brar to be a revenge killing for one of their gang members the previous year in which the singer was said to be connected. And here, too, Brar had boasted about it on Facebook, and later, to interviews in the media. He also said then that the gang would go after Salman Khan for the black buck poaching.

In the Khan house shooting, the Mumbai police took action with alacrity. The case was transferred to the crime branch and, according to some reports, over 10 teams were formed to investigate and track down the shooters. Even though they had their faces covered, were from outside Maharashtra, and left little trace by way of the vehicle or mobile phones used, the po­lice managed to track the two shooters to Bhuj in Gujarat from where they were arrested. They turned out to be two criminals from Bihar who had done the shooting for a few lakhs. Another person who coordinated it was arrested from Haryana. For the ones who ordered it sitting in countries like Canada, the monetary value in terms of publicity is immeasurable. The next extortion call they make will not be ignored, whoever they choose to target.

Soon after the shooting, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the house of Salman Khan and later told the media that the days of such violence in the state were over and the Bishnoi gang would be finished. But it is easier said than done. Lawrence Bishnoi is already in jail and will not be out for a long time. The system that allows someone like him to run a criminal empire even from prison can hardly be dismantled by the chief minister of one state. Bishnoi’s rise in crime is near-meteoric. He is only 31 now. From getting into crime through student politics in Punjab when he was around 18, his footprint spanned states like Delhi, Rajasthan and Punjab. He has had Salman Khan in his sights since 2018. Goldy Brar has been his as­sociate from his student politics days. His gang has been linked to pro-Khalistan networks and Brar was early this year declared a terrorist. If at all the story of his gang says anything, then it is that at some point such criminals take on a scale that makes it difficult to contain them because they live in countries abroad and exploit the laws there that make it difficult for India to act. Dawood Ibrahim showed the way to all of them.

Khan had been granted Y-Plus security and there are media reports from last year saying that security of his house had been tightened. Yet, it had not prevented the shooting. The film industry must now be hoping that this is not a return to the free-for-all of the past. Because if one gang becomes successful in creating terror, there will be other criminal competitors waiting to follow.

Bishnoi communityBishnoi gangblack buckpoaching caseSalman Khan