New Delhi/IBNS: Tightening the noose around the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, the police have arrested seven shooters working with his affiliate and who are linked to the gunfire outside Bollywood star Salman Khan's home as well as the murder of ex-Maharashtra minister Baba Siddiqui, media reports said.
These hitmen were arrested from across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi over the last 48 hours.
Six semi-automatic weapons and ammunition were recovered during the arrests that the Delhi Police's Special Cell has claimed to be a "pan-India" action.
They are being interrogated about Baba Siddiqui's murder and other operations of the Bishnoi gang, which Canadian federal police have also named as having links to "agents" of the Indian government and cases of homicide and extortion.
According to media reports, the first arrest was made on Wednesday, and the 'shooter' reportedly revealed that they had been given a list of targets, including one (as yet unidentified) person in Haryana.
Another possible (also as yet unidentified) target was in Rajasthan, and his execution had been cleared by Arzoo Bishnoi.
The arrest of the seven hitmen, and others in connection with the Baba Siddiqui murder, firing outside Salman Khan's house, and killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022. is seen as the tip of a vast criminal syndicate that is operated by Lawrence Bishnoi from his prison cell in Gujarat's Sabarmati Jail.
Over a dozen other Bishnoi gang members, including two of the three shooters, have been arrested in connection with the killing of Baba Siddiqui. The main shooter, Shivkumar Gautam, and two other persons involved in the murder conspiracy are on the run, the police have said.
The three shooters threw chilli powder at the police officer guarding Siddique before killing him.
The two arrested have been identified as Gurmel Baljit Singh, 23, of Haryana and 19-year-old Dharmaraj Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh.
Who is Lawrence Bishnoi?
Bishnoi, whose chiselled physique and swaggering images in hooded jackets are viral now, was born in 1993 when Salman, who is often referred to as Bollywood 'bad boy', had several hit Hindi films under his belt. A young Salman Khan with a thin outlook was a rising star in Mumbai.
In 1998, Salman was in Jodhpur to shoot Hum Saath Saath Hain, where he starred alongside the likes of Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu.
In that tour, Salman was accused of hunting two endangered blackbucks along with his co-stars.
In the same year, members from the Bishnoi community had filed a case against Salman and his co-stars. Bishnoi was just five then.
Twenty-six years later, the threat on Salman's life looms large as Bishnoi, who was a kid in 1998, is now running a gang which has a team of about 700 shooters.
Born at a village in Ferozepur, Punjab, Bishnoi did his study in Abohar until 12th grade in 2010. He moved to DAV College, Chandigarh the same year.
The next year, Bishnoi joined Panjab University Campus Students Council where he came across another gangster, Goldy Brar. The two joined the campus politics and also committed crimes.
The Bishnoi gang is operating with 700 shooters from five states with an outreach outside India as well.
Bishnoi, who is in jail, operates from prison using mobile phones. He is switched from one prison to the other. First jailed in 2012, he is now in Ahmedabad's Sabarmati Jail where he was shifted from Delhi's Tihar Jail last year in August.
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Lawrence Bishnoi
