The Dread of the Late-Night Call

ON JULY 7, 2025, businessman Sanjay Verma stepped out of his car in front of his clothing showroom, New Wear Well, in Abohar town in Punjab’s Fazil­ka district. It was around 10AM. Verma was known as the “kurta-pajama king” in the area; he and his brother had started as tailors, but as demand for his skills grew, he finally managed to open a showroom, selling, among other clothing, readymade and bespoke suits for men. No sooner had Verma alighted than three men, who were already waiting there on a motorcycle, rushed towards him. Two of them fired at Verma from point-blank range. As he fell, they tried to flee, but their bike slipped, after which they snatched another bike from a passerby and fled. Verma, who was in his fifties, was rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

Three days earlier on July 4, 2025, unknown assailants shot at a prominent doctor, Aniljit Kamboj, inside his nursing home in Moga district. The assailants had come posing as patients that afternoon. As Kamboj began speaking to one of them he thought he was supposed to treat, the other fired at him from two weap­ons, leaving him critically injured.

Kamboj had received an extortion threat from a Canada-based Khalistani operative, Lakhbir Singh Landa. According to reports, a police gunman provided to him had been withdrawn a few months ago. It is likely that Verma must have received a ransom demand too. The responsibility for Verma’s killing was taken on social media by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang which is involved in several high-profile killings, including that of the popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala. A message posted on behalf of his associate, Arzoo Bishnoi, claimed responsibility for the killing. It said that Verma was shot because they (the gang) had called him but he refused to recognise them. “So we shot him dead to make it clear who we are,” it said.

These attacks have created an acute sense of fear in Punjab. Over the past few months, a spate of calls, part of organised extortion, has led to insecurity among people, especially those like Verma who are most likely to receive such calls. In the last two years, over 500 such calls have been reported to the po­lice. But it is believed that the number is considerably higher since many may not have even reported such threats. “The situation is dangerous and it is chaotic,” said Punjab’s former Additional Director of Police Gurinder Dhillon. “There is a deep nexus in the state between gangsters, non-state actors like terrorists and drug smugglers.”

A day after Verma’s killing, the police claimed that two people who had provided support to the shooters had been killed while they were being taken for recovery of weapons. A day later, the police did a complete flip-flop, claiming that the two had been killed by their accomplices who ambushed the police team. This glaring reversal has drawn more criticism because there have been at least 20 such alleged encounters in the last seven months where the accused were being taken for recovery of weapons.

At the receiving end of such calls are various individuals—from businessmen to singers, and now even small-time traders—accord­ing to a senior journalist in Punjab. There have been reports that a few businessmen may have paid quietly. “There is a complete lack of confidence in the police. Many who may have received such calls know that the police will not act. Policing in Punjab, unfortunately, has been reduced to narratives,” said Dhillon. The failure of police in curbing the increased threat of gangsters found voice in the statements of the victims’ families and the Opposition leaders. Verma’s distraught brother said that businessmen like them paid taxes and generated jobs and yet they did not get any security. While paying tribute to Verma in Abohar, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said that gangsters rule Punjab while Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann looks the other way. On July 8, Bajwa wrote to Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, asking him to extend the sittings of the House to discuss what he said was not just a law-and-order problem but a “societal emergency”.

These threats are issued by local gangsters and also those based abroad in countries like Canada. Already struggling with a mas­sive drug problem and still coming to terms with the ghost of insurgency, the growth of gangsters, now close to 40 in number, has become a major cause of worry. What is particularly trou­bling is the rise of hybrid threats where criminals who espouse the cause of Sikh separatism and many of whom are supported by Pakistan’s ISI are also a part of such extortion syndicates. In May, the Delhi Police arrested eight trained shooters of one such gang. These shooters, according to the police, were working on the instructions of their handlers in Canada; they had fired at the house of a Delhi businessman and soon afterwards made a ran­som call of `5 crore. On July 14, unidentified men shot at the car of Haryanvi singer Rahul Fazilpuria in Gurugram. Fazilpuria, whose real name is Rahul Yadav, luckily escaped unhurt. The police are still investigating the matter, though it could be related to one of the gangs. The same gang also opened fire in Canada on the café owned by comedian Kapil Sharma on July 10. The café had just been opened for a soft launch.

A PART OF THIS ecosystem wants to strike fear in the Punjabi music industry. The killing of Sidhu Moose Wala and threats (and attacks) on several other singers have sent ripples through the industry whose current value is estimat­ed to be around ` 60,000 crore. In many ways, it all began from the traction gangster Lawrence Bishnoi received from the publicity around his plans to kill actor Salman Khan. The modus operandi of these gangs is similar to how the Mumbai underworld used to operate at one point. In the investigation done by the National In­vestigation Agency (NIA) against Bishnoi, it was revealed that he and his associates expanded their network by hiring unemployed youths from Punjab and other neighbouring states. Sometimes, sources reveal, gangsters serving prison time operate from inside and hire petty criminals lodged in the jail. In lieu of working for them, they are promised huge amounts of money and also an opportunity to settle abroad in countries like Canada. This makes the police’s task quite difficult as many of these youths have no past criminal record. In the killing of MLA Baba Siddique in Mumbai, for example, one of the suspected shooters, Shiv Kumar Gautam, had first learnt how to fire a gun by trying it in Uttar Pradesh where celebratory fire often takes place. Other suspects had tried learning it by watching YouTube videos.

Tracing such threats is also proving to be difficult. Gangsters use advanced communication methods, particularly one called “Dabba Calling” that has left the police baffled. The method involves a gang member placing a call for extortion using Voice over Internet Protocol or Virtual Private Networks after which he calls his boss from another phone and then places the two phones on speaker beside each other.

Since big gangsters like Bishnoi are in many ways glorified now, especially through the ways they use social media, several petty criminals in Punjab now want to emulate this model. Last October, Punjab’s police chief Gaurav Yadav revealed that nearly 80 per cent of the extortion calls are made by local criminals pre­tending to be big gangsters. This trick has even been used by four people recently in Bengaluru, where they made an extortion call to a businessman. They have been arrested now.

The police have also cracked down on social media accounts that glorify gangs, but they always find a way to publicise their acts. In April, acting on a petition, the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed Punjab and Haryana to formulate an SOP to dismantle criminal networks. The bench noted that “extortion, a hallmark of their [gangs’] operations, forces individuals and busi­nesses to pay for ‘protection’ or face dire consequences, perpetuat­ing a cycle of fear and lawlessness. Such criminal activities not only stifle entrepreneurship, but also create a parallel economy, fostering corruption and subverting the rule of law.”

There is fear now that from the success in Punjab, these gangs may expand their operations to other neighbouring states. In a way, they already have, as is evident from attacks in Delhi and Haryana. Dilly-dallying on such crucial matters, as Punjab has proved time and again, has severe repercussions.

But, as Dhillon says, it is also a matter of failure of basic polic­ing. “The people who came to kill Verma stayed for a night. They got motorcycles, they arranged cars, and they had people acting as facilitators. Where was the police at the local level while all this was happening? Where was the SHO?” he asked.

AboharcaféCanadacrimeKapil SharmaOrganised extortionPunjabSanjay VermaSikh separatismSurrey