Guns, gangs and terror: India to Canada

As the NIA this week released a list of 43 actors who, they said, were part of this gangster-terror web, there was a sense of déjà vu in the region. For, many of them were homegrown ‘boys’ who had been baptised in crime in the city of Chandigarh – from Moosewala murder accused Lawrence Bishnoi to Pakistan-based terrorist Harvinder Singh Rinda, fugitive Goldy Brar, and his bete noire and Bambiha gang head Gaurav Lucky Patyal.

At the centre of the web are two gangs and two proscribed organisations —the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF). While the Lawrence Bishnoi gang is affiliated to the Babbars, its arch rival, the Bambiha gang, is allied to the KTF.

A police officer who has been part of many coordination meetings among police of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and NIA said, “Central agencies have found alliances of members of both the gangs with anti-national elements within India and foreign countries.” Ideology or religion, he says, plays no role in these transactions. “It’s all for money and power.”

Gangwars, revenge killings & terror

The Bishnoi and Bambiha gangs, whose members are part of the NIA list of 43, are arch rivals, with a blood trail of revenge killings since 2020, when a Bishnoi gang member – Goldy Brar’s brother Gurlal – was shot dead by the Bambiha gang outside a mall in Chandigarh. On September 21, the Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility for the killing of Sukhdool Singh Gill aka Sukha Duneke, who is considered No 3 in the Bambiha gang hierarchy.

Both the Bishnoi and Bambiha gangs have a Chandigarh connection. It was in the city’s DAV College that Bishnoi, the 31-year-old gangster from a landed family of Abohar, first met his mentor, Vikramjit Singh Middukhera, the Akali Dal leader whose killing in Mohali in August 2021 has routinely been blamed for scores of other killings, including that of Moosewala. It was here that the terror-gangster link played out when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the Mohali intelligence headquarters of the Punjab Police by two hired hands from UP in May 2022.

Targeted killings, extortions, smuggling of weapons and drugs, money laundering, and attacks designed to create fear are all part of this web of gangster-terrorists, many of whom the NIA has nabbed from countries such as Azerbaijan, Thailand, the Philippines and Armenia. Sources in the agency say they have also placed 26 extradition requests with Canada.

Many who are part of this nexus – such as Arshdeep Gill aka Arsh Dalla, Harwinder Singh Sandhu aka Rinda and Lakhbir Singh Sandhu aka Landa – started off as gangsters, before turning to terror, groomed allegedly by their ISI handlers. In its chargesheet filed against the three in July this year, the NIA said, “They have close contacts with drug smugglers and Khalistani operatives in Pakistan and other countries. They also have linkages with major gangs in North India.’’ The NIA alleged that the three funded terror in India by sending money through the Money Transfer Service Scheme (MTSS).

Arsh Dalla is said to have been a close aide of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the pro-Khalistani separatist whose murder in June this year has escalated diplomatic tensions between India and Canada. As per the NIA chargesheet, Dalla has been guiding and commissioning terrorist acts and also promoting terror, violence and large-scale extortion in India on behalf of the KTF.

Rinda, who is in Pakistan, and Dalla, a resident of Canada, are among the 43 who have been designated as terrorists.

Most of the gangsters are young — Bishnoi is 30, the others are either in their twenties or early thirties with just a couple above 40. They are also known to be tech-savvy, using encrypted applications for their calls and transactions. The global reach of some of these gangsters became evident to the NIA when its officials painstakingly traced the money trail and the IP numbers from which the extortion calls had been made.

“Gangsters such as Dalla who extort money target Punjabis not just in Punjab and the region but in other countries as well,” said a police officer.

Sources said Dalla’s standard modus operandi is to allegedly call his prey, and shower the victim with abuses before asking for money and threatening to kill. At times, they said, Dalla would blackmail them with photos of their children or open fire in front of their homes or workplace.

Goldy Brar, who shot to the limelight after the Moosewala murder in June 2022, is a close aide of Bishnoi. In May this year, the NIA filed a chargesheet against the duo, accusing them of having “links” with the proscribed Babbar Khalsa International and other separatist outfits. They, along with 12 others, including Sachin and Anmol Bishnoi, were charged with criminal conspiracy to “unleash a wave of terror” in the region by carrying out targeted killings.

While Arsh Dalla, Lakhbir Landa and Goldy Brar have found refuge in Canada, Rinda is said to be in Pakistan. Rumours about his death last year could not be substantiated, and the NIA believes he is alive. After a brush with law in Chandigarh, in 2018, Rinda fled to Pakistan via Nepal and is said to be working under Babbar Khalsa International chief Wadhawa Singh. Last year, he claimed responsibility for the RPG attack at Mohali. He is wanted in 25 cases, including murder and for grenade attacks at a police station in Mohali and the Army base in Pathankot.

Living on the edge

Each of the 43 men on the list has a story stranger than fiction. Gaurav Lucky Patyal, born and raised in Khuda Lahora, a village on the outskirts of Chandigarh, is a fugitive and was last spotted two years ago. Patyal heads the Bambiha gang, named after Davinder Bambiha, a sharpshooter from a Moga village who notched up quite a following on social media during his short-lived career as a criminal. Bambiha was gunned down by the Punjab Police in 2016 when he was 25.

Most of these gangsters hail from farming families. A significant number of them have received formal education, attending both school and college, with some even venturing into the realm of student politics. However, a series of criminal acts sent them hurtling into the abyss of the underworld, and now, most of them face a lengthy list of heinous charges, including multiple murders.

For instance, Gaurav Patyal, a hotel management student, assumed leadership of the Bambiha gang after receiving a life sentence for the murder of a kabaddi player in Chandigarh in 2015. During his time behind bars, he fortified his network of criminal associates, only to later escape parole and flee overseas. His last known location was Armenia, and he is believed to be the mastermind behind the attack on singer Parmish Verma in Mohali. Patyal maintains a close association with Arsh Dalla of the KTF.

With 50 cases against him, Bishnoi is easily one of India’s most dreaded gangsters who makes sensational appearances on social media and even television despite being in prison for the last several years.

Anmol Bishnoi, his younger brother, who at 25 is the youngest on the NIA list, is currently believed to be in hiding in the United States.

Many of the Bishnoi gang members are drawn from Haryana and Rajasthan while the Bambiha gang has forged alliances with gangsters in the national capital with Kaushal Chaudhary (Gurgaon), Neeraj Bawana (Delhi), and Sunil alias Tillu Tajpuriya (Outer Delhi).

The Bishnoi syndicate also includes the father-son duo of Virender Pratap alias Kala Rana, 27, who oversees extortion and contract killings in Haryana, and his father Joginder, 57, who assists the gang with finances.

The gangs have their hierarchy and Sandeep alias Kala Jatheri is high in the pecking order of the Bishnoi syndicate with at least three gangsters reporting to him in Haryana.

Also, there is specialisation in the ranks. Rajesh Kumar alias Raju Mota, 33, handles the illegal liquor business for the syndicate while Raj Kumar aka Raju Basodi, 38, facilitates communications between the gang members.

Almost all these gangsters have fled abroad on fake papers, making it difficult for agencies to track them. Though they are spread across the globe, and many have been put behind bars back home in India, they continue to operate through small-time criminals and new foot soldiers.

With the NIA turning the screws, the gangsters might feel the heat soon. Releasing the list of 43 earlier this week, the agency urged the public to inform it about the properties, assets and businesses these men owned in their own names or in the names of associates and relatives. Sources in the agency said it is serious about seizing the assets of all the absconding gangsters, separatists, drug traffickers and UAPA accused.

It’s a chilling message and NIA is hoping it will have the desired impact.