P-Company: The Gangs of Punjab

ON OCTOBER 10, A team of Delhi Police’s Special Cell nabbed two criminals who they said were responsible for the sensational attack on the headquarters of the Punjab Police’s Intelligence wing in Mohali in May this year. Interrogation revealed that the two accused had been tasked by Canada-based Khalistani extremists who work with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in a bid to revive militancy in Punjab. For this act, they had been provided local support by the notorious Punjab gangster, Lawrence Bishnoi, currently in jail, who is also the main conspirator behind the murder of the Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala. The two, further investigation revealed, were also a part of a group that had been asked to conduct recce at actor Salman Khan’s residence for a plan to kill him.

A month earlier, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids at 50 locations in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and the Delhi-NCR region to dismantle a nexus of gangsters who with the help of Khalistani terrorists and other gangsters based in foreign countries were planning to carry out terror activities in Delhi and elsewhere, especially targeted killings. Many of these gang leaders are based in countries like Canada, Australia, and Malaysia. It is with this intention that Moose Wala and many others were killed and a plan was hatched to kill Salman Khan.

“Behind these acts is a sinister plot to create something similar to what the D-Company had been running in Mumbai in the ’80s and ’90s,” revealed a top police investigator. Only this time, these criminal syndicates have no need to establish themselves specifically in Mumbai. “The social media game has changed everything,” the police investigator said, “together with TV news channels, it serves these gangs well for their need for publicity.”

At the heart of this conflict is a war between two criminal syndicates—the Lawrence Bishnoi and Davinder Bambiha gangs. Under these two umbrellas, several gangsters operating in Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have come together. With their eye on the national capital and on extending their operations of extortion, land grabbing, and contract killings, these two warring groups are constantly at loggerheads, resulting in the death of prominent members from each side. After Bambiha’s death in an encounter in 2016, the faction is now run by Lucky Patial, a gangster who is based in Armenia. His arch-rival Bishnoi is in jail since 2016 but manages his gang effectively from the inside. He has more than 50 cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, and dacoity against him.

After Moose Wala’s killing, social media posts on Bishnoi’s name and that of his close associate, the Canada-based gangster Goldie Brar surfaced on social media, claiming responsibility for it. These posts claimed Moose Wala was killed because of his alleged involvement in the killing, in 2021, of Bishnoi’s old mentor, Vicky Meddukhera. In that case, Moose Wala’s secretary Shaganpreet is also currently under arrest.

Lawrence Bishnoi comes from an affluent, land-owning family from Punjab’s Fazilka district. He went to Chandigarh’s DAV School and later to the DAV College. A friend from his earlier years recalls how he was fascinated with bikes and bodybuilding. “But that was something most of the youngsters were interested in, so there were no signs of his criminal streak then,” he said. It is in the college that Bishnoi met Vicky Meddukhera who was a student leader. “From early on, Vicky became Bishnoi’s guru. It was on Vicky’s recommendation that Bishnoi became the college president of the party Vicky was associated with,” recalled Bishnoi’s former friend.

IT IS AROUND 2009-10 that Bishnoi first engaged in unlawful activity. “He went to Chandigarh’s Sector 10 and burnt down a few vehicles belonging to Vicky’s rival in student politics,” the friend said. Afterward, Bishnoi fled to the neighbouring Panchkula city. As the police came looking for him, they could not recognise him as he had no prior record. He fooled the police by telling them that “Bishnoi” had already left from there.

Later, Bishnoi got into a conflict with a local gang which resulted in him badly beating up a few supporters of his rival. In 2011, his name appeared first in the case of a robbery of a financer in Ferozepur. For a few years, afterward, nobody knows what Bishnoi was up to. Till his name surfaced again, this time as a gangster.

Later, as per police records, Bishnoi joined hands with the notorious Haryana gangster Sandeep alias Kala Jathedi. Jathedi was arrested by the Haryana Police in 2012. He joined hands with Bishnoi and managed to escape from custody in 2020. Jathedi was rearrested in July last year from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur along with Anuradha Chaudhari. She is an associate of gangster Anandpal Singh, another associate of Bishnoi, killed earlier in a police encounter in 2017. Also helping Bishnoi was the Subbe Gujjar gang that has a history of multiple crimes in Delhi-NCR, especially extortion. He was arrested in May last year. On Lucky Patial’s side in the Bambiha group are gangsters like Neeraj Bawana, Sunil alias Tillu Tajpuriya, and Kaushal, all currently under arrest.

The recent spate of killings began with the Bambiha group’s targeting of Bishnoi’s mentor. On August 7, 2021, Vicky Meddukhera went in his Toyota Fortuner SUV to a market near his house in Mohali. He was plain unlucky. Earlier that morning, he had chosen not to go to the gym at his regular time. Oblivious to him, four shooters were waiting for him there. As he didn’t come, they left the place and went to the market to have a snack. It is the same market where Vicky had arrived minutes earlier. One of the shooters spotted his car and the four lay in wait for him. As Vicky sat in his car, he was shot. He tried to escape, but was shot repeatedly and finally fell on the road.

A month later, Bishnoi’s associate Jitender Gogi was killed as he was being produced in a court in Delhi’s Rohini area. Gogi had been arrested a year earlier from a flat in Gurugram after one of his friends posted a picture of their coffee glasses at a Starbucks joint with Gogi’s and two other’s names on them. The Bambiha gang then executed the murder of an international kabaddi player, Sandeep Singh Sidhu in March this year.

AS THE KILLINGS increased, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell launched a major operation codenamed “Operation 3 P”. Relying on data analysis and technical surveillance, its investigators zeroed in on suspected bases in Bengaluru, Nashik, Mohali, Faridabad, and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh along with several locations in Delhi. These spots were put under covert watch for weeks, which resulted in the arrest of 12 prominent members of the Bambiha-Patial group. This included Sajjan alias Bholu, Anil alias Latth, and Ajay, involved in Vicky Meddukhera’s killing. Sajjan is also believed to be the killer of the Congress leader Vikas Choudhary, killed in June 2019 in Faridabad. Anil was also involved in a double murder in March 2021 of two people in Ambala in a case of mistaken identity.

Just before Moose Wala’s murder, Delhi Police had arrested a member of the Bishnoi gang, Shahrukh, who carried a reward of ₹2 lakh. Shahrukh had begun his criminal life as a juvenile working for the notorious Shakti Naidu gang of south Delhi. After Naidu’s death in a police encounter, he joined hands with the gangster Hashim alias Baba, operating from northeast Delhi. During the Covid pandemic, Shahrukh was released on emergency parole. While he was out, his boss Hashim was arrested. It is in the jail then that Hashim came in touch with Lawrence Bishnoi. From here, according to the police, Shahrukh became vital to Bishnoi’s operations.

After Moose Wala’s murder, Shahrukh was put under sustained interrogation. He told police that he had earlier conducted a recce of Moose Wala’s village along with two others. But as they noticed his personal security officers armed with AK-47 rifles, they returned. Shahrukh told interrogators that he then contacted Bishnoi’s associate Goldie Brar and asked him to provide him an AK-47 rifle. Later, when the murder was executed, the police found that the same white Bolero car that Shahrukh had used for recce had been used in the final act.

The investigation also revealed Bishnoi’s elaborate plan to assassinate actor Salman Khan. “This was planned even before the plan to kill Moose Wala,” said a senior Delhi Police officer. For this, one of Bishnoi’s sharpshooters, Kapil Pandit, and his two associates had conducted a thorough recce of his house in Bandra. But finally, it was decided that it would be better to kill him at his farmhouse in Panvel. For this, the three rented a room near his farmhouse. They stayed here for about six weeks.

“The recce was very elaborate,” said the officer, “the shooters had even identified potholes on the route of the farmhouse where vehicles would slow down considerably.” Pandit and his associates also befriended the guards outside Khan’s farmhouse, posing as the actor’s diehard fans.

Police sources said that Salman Khan’s planned murder was part of Bishnoi’s plan to strike fear in the Hindi film industry. Already, there is fear in the Punjab music industry whose current value is estimated to be around ₹60,000 crore. Last year, it produced over 5,000 music videos. An officer of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell said that the modus operandi of the Punjab gangs is similar to how the Mumbai underworld used to operate at one point. It would get young men from places like Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh and use them to kill their targets. “It would be difficult to follow the trail because these young men had no past criminal record,” he said.

In August, noted Punjabi singer and writer Jaani Johan said he had received death threats and requested Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to increase his security cover. Days after Moose Wala’s murder, another singer Mankirt Aulakh received similar threats, this time from the Bishnoi gang. Earlier in April, he had received threats from the Bambiha group as well.

On Bishnoi’s part, police sources reveal, he understands the social media game very well. During his appearance in the court with others—an exercise that has to be conducted under tight security using armoured vehicles—he exhibits a particular image, donning a tilak and claiming to read the Hanuman Chalisa in jail. “In the court, people throng to catch a glimpse of him. Even in jail, he is becoming bigger and bigger, conducting his operations with impunity. This surely is going to become a big headache in the future,” said a senior police officer in Punjab.

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