Two of the three Lawrence Bishnoi gang members arrested Wednesday were involved in the 2018 firing at a nightclub in Chandigarh’s Sector 26 during the birthday party of Sahdev Salaria, a former close aide to BJP MP Kirron Kher, Punjab Police said. Police identified the duo as Arjun Thakur, son of a former Chandigarh policeman, and Rohit Bhardwaj alias Rimmy. “Arjun Thakur, a resident of Police Colony in Sector 51, Rohit Bhardwaj and four others were involved in the F-bar nightclub firing. Gunshots were fired at the nightclub on November 19, 2018, and one Jaideep Singh received gun wounds. The matter is pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court,” a police officer said. Thakur, Rimmy and a third gangster, Mohit Bhardwaj, were arrested from Mohali for allegedly running an extortion racket and Rs 14.78 lakh was recovered from them. DGP (Punjab) Gaurav Yadav said the extortion racket had used an online platform, adding that after initially winning some rewards, the victims would lose money and the accused would then give them money on credit. When the victims showed unwillingness and helplessness to return the money, the accused would make threatening calls to them through their gangster associates, police said. Bhardwaj was arrested twice before in Chandigarh—once for allegedly possessing countrymade weapons and later for helping SI Pritpal Singh, who was suspended after Lawrence Bishnoi gang member Deepak Tinu escaped from his custody on October 4 last year. “Mohit Bhardwaj studied with gangster Sampat Nehra, another aide to Lawrence Bishnoi, at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College in 2006-07. He once met Nehra in Bangkok in 2017,” the police officer said.
