Gangster Anmol Bishnoi detained in California: Officials

Indian officials said they are trying to ascertain the circumstances under which he has been caught in California

New Delhi: Anmol Bishnoi, brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, is learnt to have been detained by the U.S. authorities in California, officials in Indian agencies familiar with the development said on Monday.

Anmol Bishnoi, brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, was running the gang’s activities along with Goldy Brar and was operating from the US.

The Indian officials, however, said they don’t have any official confirmation as of now.

“We have learnt from our sources that Anmol Bishnoi, who was running the gang’s activities along with Goldy Brar and was operating from the US, has been detained in California about four to five days back. We are trying to get more details through official channels,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.

This is the second major detention of wanted gangsters - after Arshdeep Singh Gill alias Arsh Dalla’s detention in Canada late last month.

READ | Lawrence Bishnoi gang wanted to ‘target’ Shraddha Walkar murder case accused: Report

Indian officials were trying to ascertain the circumstances under which Anmol Bishnoi had been caught in California. Anmol Bishnoi was last located in California’s Fresno city. It is not immediately known if he has been detained in Fresno itself.

Officials said the US officials were already in touch with Mumbai Police on Bishnoi’s whereabouts. The Mumbai cops are investigating his involvement in firing outside actor Salman Khan’s residence on April 14 this year as well as the killing of NCP leader Baba Siddique on October 12.

Mumbai police is reportedly working on sending an extradition request for Anmol Bishnoi to the US

As reported by HT last month, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has included Anmol Bishnoi in its ‘most wanted’ list and declared a reward of ₹10 lakh on him recently.

Earlier, the Mumbai police issued a lookout circular against him in connection with the firing outside Khan’s residence on April 14 after he claimed responsibility for the incident on social media.

Investigations have revealed that the shooters in Baba Siddique’s murder were also in touch with Anmol Bishnoi over Snapchat.

READ | Baba Siddique murder case: 24th accused arrested from Punjab

Siddique was shot dead outside his son Zeeshan’s office building in Bandra East on October 12. He was shot by three armed assailants and sustained three bullet injuries.

Shortly after the incident, a social media post was uploaded by Shubham Lonkar, a suspected member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, claiming responsibility for the murder.

Anmol Bishnoi and Goldy Brar, who are said to be hiding in the US, run the activities of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. This includes executing, conspiring with various gang leaders lodged in jails to threaten and terrorise singers, industrialists, political functionaries and sportspersons etc and to extort money from them, even resorting to eliminations and killings, if they fail to pay up.

“Their syndicate is spread across the states (and Union territories) that include Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand and recruitment, payments to gang members, supply of weapons etc is managed from abroad, mostly by Anmol, Goldy Brar and a few other close aides of Lawrence,” said a second officer cited above.

READ | 'Killed 25 women': UP teacher gets death, rape threats from 'Lawrence Bishnoi gang'

Also known as ‘Bhanu’, the younger sibling of the jailed gangster was also involved in ordering a hit on singer Sidhu Moose Wala in May 2022. Lawrence Bishnoi has been lodged in Sabarmati prison since August last year.

The Lawrence Bishnoi gang is also closely associated with the pro-Khalistan groups including Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and agencies feel that Anmol Bishnoi and Goldy Brar run those operations as well.

The NIA has called this entire network the new underworld. In a charge sheet filed in March 2023 into the gangsters’ activities, it said “this nexus of gangsters and PKEs and their links with the music industry, singers, kabaddi players and advocates etc, is working on the lines of the pre-1993 Mumbai blasts era when extensive linkages of the underworld with the business people and the film industry had surfaced.”