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NIA arrests Lucknow man for links with gangster Bishnoi
Vikas Singh harboured multiple members of Bishnoi’s criminal syndicate, including two who carried out the 2022 RPG attack on the Punjab Police intelligence HQ in Mohali: NIA
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a Lucknow resident from Delhi for his alleged association with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the agency said on Wednesday.
Vikas Singh, who hails from Gomti Nagar Extension in Lucknow, had allegedly harboured members of the Bishnoi’s terror syndicate, which executed the RPG Attack on Punjab Police’s intelligence headquarters in Mohali in May 2022.
On May 17 this year, the NIA raided three locations in Uttar Pradesh, including Singh’s apartment in Lucknow, as part of search operations carried out by the central agency across six states in connection with cases related to narco-terror-gangster nexus, NIA officials said. Singh was in hiding since then.
The NIA presented him before a competent court in Delhi and procured his five-day police custody remand to interrogate him further in the matter.
In a press note, the NIA said Singh had given shelter to Deepak Surakhpur and Divyanshu, who executed the RPG Attack, multiple times at two locations: his parental house in Ayodhya’s Devgarh village and his Lucknow apartment.
The note added Singh was himself booked in 10 cases, which include those of murder and attempt to murder. Some were registered under the Arms Act and the Gangster Act.
The NIA investigation revealed that Surakhpur was introduced to Singh by Bishnoi’s friend and associate Vicky Midhukhera. Later, Singh introduced Divyanshu, whom he already knew, to Bishnoi’s syndicate. Surakhpur and Divyanshu were reportedly involved in numerous contract killings, including that of businessman Sanjay Biyani in Nanded and one Rana Kandhowalia in Punjab.
The NIA officials said Singh also harboured a suspect in the Rana Kandowalia murder case, Rinku. Moreover, in early 2020, after a double murder case in Chandigarh (allegedly carried out on the behest of Bishnoi), the assailants Monu Dagar, Cheema and Rajan stayed in Lucknow with Singh. Their investigation has also revealed that many gangsters and their associates from other states were harboured by Singh.
The NIA has, so far, arrested 15 accused in the terror-gangster conspiracy case, and charge-sheeted 14 of them, including Bishnoi. The chargesheet in the case was filed on March 24, 2023 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, and the Arms Act, 1959.
