Lawrence Bishnoi: How a law student became a dreaded gangster

Lawrence Bishnoi, the dreaded gangster who rose to prominence for making numerous threat calls to Bollywood actor Salman Khan and also for plotting the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala, has returned to the limelight again.
Despite being lodged in Gujarat’s Sabarmati Jail since 2014, his gang was allegedly linked to the October 12 murder of NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique in Mumbai. A member claiming to be from the gang said on social media that the Bishnoi gang had carried out the killing.
But how did Lawrence Bishnoi, who had once enroled to study law, become such a dread criminal? India Today’s Arvind Ojha gives us a detailed insight into Bishnoi’s journey during a podcast with Aaj Tak Radio.
BISHNOI’S TIME AS LAW STUDENT
Born on February 12, 1992, in Punjab’s Fazlika district, Lawrence Bishnoi’s real name is Balkaran Brar. His father was a Punjab Police constable. Interestingly, the father of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who Bishnoi is compared to often, was also a cop.
As per Bishnoi’s interrogation report, he took admission in Panjab University in 2007 to study law, but quickly became engaged with student politics. The following year, his friend, Robin Brar, contested the student council elections.
Bishnoi, however, used Brar’s licenced pistol to threaten the latter’s rival and fired at him. As a result, Bishnoi was jailed and a case under section 307 (punishment for attempted murder) was lodged against him for the first time. He was released two months later.
When he was in jail, it is believed that he became associated with some top criminals.
Robin Brar also lost the polls.
In 2010, he contested to become chairman of the student council, but lost. The winning candidate was beaten up by Bishnoi’s associates. After that, he went to prison again.
The next year, he won the post of chairman and this is when he formed a close association with Goldy Brar, who also became a notorious gangster and a senior member of the Bishnoi gang.
Together, they started contesting small scale elections in Punjab. In 2012, Bishnoi graduated and, in an effort to stay relevant in student politics, he formed a gang, which included his friend Sampat Nehra, a gangster from Haryana.
In 2018, Nehra travelled to Mumbai to kill Salman Khan.
HIS TRANSFORMATION INTO A GANGSTER
In 2013, at a state-run college in Muktsar, Punjab, when the candidate backed by Bishnoi lost the student elections, he ordered the murder of the winner. Bishnoi also ordered the killing of the candidate who contested the Lucknow Municipal Corporation against his friend’s relative.
In 2018, Bishnoi first made plans to kill Salman Khan and asks Sampat Nehra to carry out the murder. Despite carrying out a recce of the actor’s residence at Mumbai’s Galaxy Apartments, Nehra was unable to fulfil the plan since he did not possess a long-range weapon.
Nehra, however, is arrested when he returns to Haryana to purchase the weapon.
The second plan to attack Salman Khan was made around the time of Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder in 2020. The third attempt was ordered by Goldy Brar, when the shooters did recce of Salman Khan’s farmhouse in Panvel.
But police in Delhi and Mumbai received information of the third attempt, and the plan failed.
India Today TV’s Arvind Ojha revealed during the podcast that when he spoke to Goldy Brar, the latter confirmed that Salman Khan was the Bishnoi gang’s target. He also claimed that Lawrence Bishnoi and his gang would surely kill the actor or would get his apology for his alleged involvement in killing two blackbucks – an animal sacred to the Bishnoi community – while shooting for a film in Rajasthan in 1998.
Lawrence Bishnoi’s network is so strong that despite him being in jail, his gang members continue to spread terror. According to the National Investigation Agency, Bishnoi is trying to turn his gang into something similar to the Dawood Ibrahim crime syndicate.
At just 31, he has cases registered against him under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and his name keeps popping every now and then in connection to a serious crime. So far, he has more than 75 cases lodges against him.
In a recent order, the Union Home Ministry said that until 2025, no other state police can apply for a remand to interrogate Bishnoi.
His network has more than 700 shooters and is spread across several countries, including Canada, Italy and Australia.