NIA nabs Lawrence Bishnoi aide who sheltered RPG attack accused

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday said it arrested a key associate of notorious jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi for his involvement in harbouring members of the Lawrence Bishnoi terror syndicate who are involved in various criminal cases, including the RPG attack on the Intelligence Headquarters of Punjab Police, Mohali on May 9 last year.

According to a statement by the NIA, the accused, Vikas Singh of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, had harboured Deepak Surakhpur and Divyanshu of Faizabad, who executed the RPG attack. Of the 16 accused, as many as 12, including a juvenile and a woman, have been arrested in the case so far and Harvinder Singh Rinda and Lakhbir Singh Landa are absconding.

Vikas has revealed to the NIA that he had given shelter to Deepak Surakhpur and Divyanshu in his house in Devgarh village of Ayodhya and his flat in Gomti Nagar Vistar, Lucknow, UP, many times. He is accused in 10 criminal cases for the offences of murder, attempt to murder, Arms Act and Gangster Act.

The NIA investigations have revealed that Surakhpur was introduced to Vikas by Vicky Middukhera. Notably, Middukhera, a close friend of Lawrence Bishnoi and Youth Akali Dal leader, was killed by Bambiha gang members in August 2021. Later, Bishnoi and Canada-based gangster avenged Middukhera’s killing by murdering Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu Moose Wala. Punjab Police probe in the case of Moose Wala’s killing had revealed that Bishnoi conspired to kill Moose Wala because they believed that the singer was involved in Middukhera’s killing through his manager.

As per the NIA probe, Vikas had connected Divyanshu to the Bishnoi syndicate. The duo were also involved in numerous targetted/contract killings, including that of businessman Sanjay Biyani in Nanded and Rana Kandhowalia in Punjab.

Vikas also harboured another accused namely Rinku after Rana Kandowalia’s murder case. The investigation has also revealed that many gangsters/associates from other states such as Rinku, Rajpal (MP) and Bhati (MP) were also harboured by Vikas.

The present case relates to the terrorist-gangster conspiracy hatched by members of Lawrence Bishnoi criminal syndicates/gangs based in India and abroad, to raise funds and recruit youth to carry out terrorist Acts in Delhi and other parts of the country. The investigations so far have shown that the conspiracy was hatched/being hatched in jails of different states and were being executed by an organised network of operatives based abroad.

The NIA has already established the involvement of the terror syndicate in several sensational terror cases, including the targetted killing of Pradeep Kumar, a Dera Sacha Sauda follower in 2022, and the killing of Raju Thehth in Sikar, Rajasthan.

The probe agency has till date arrested 15 accused and has chargesheeted 14, including Lawrence Bishnoi, in the terror-gangster conspiracy case. The others named in the chargesheet are Jagdeep Singh, alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, Sandeep, alias Kala Jatheri, Virender Pratap, alias Kala Rana, Joginder Singh, Rajesh Kumar, alias Raju Mota, Raj Kumar, alias Raju Basodi, Anil Chippi, Naresh Yadav, alias Naresh Sethi, Mohammad Shahbaz Ansari, alias Shahbaz Ansari, Satinderjit Singh, alias Satwinder and Goldy Brar, Sachin Thapan, alias Sachin Thapan Bishnoi, Anmol Bishnoi, alias Bhanu and Vikramjit Singh, alias Vikram Brar.

The NIA had filed the chargesheet in the instant case on March 24 under various sections of the IPC, UA(P) Act-1967 and Arms Act-1959.

Further investigations into the conspiracy are continued as part of NIA’s efforts to destroy the growing nexus between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers, and to dismantle their funding and infrastructure.