Two bulletproof vehicles, 38 armed policemen guarded gangster Bishnoi
At least two bulletproof vehicles, 10 cars and 54 police personnel, including 38 armed guards, protect gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, key accused in the murder of Sidhu Moose Wala, while transporting him to courts in Punjab from the Mandoli jail in Delhi, according to documents the Punjab Police submitted to a Delhi court last week. HT has seen a copy of the documents.
The Punjab Police made the submission detailing security arrangements made for Bishnoi’s transfer from Delhi to Punjab after Binshnoi’s counsel Vishal Chopra apprehended a threat to his life. Moosewala, a singer and a Congress leader, was shot dead by gunmen on May 29 when he, along with his cousin and a friend was driving to Jawaharke village in Punjab’s Mansa district. On June 8, the Delhi Police said that Bishnoi is the mastermind behind Moosewala’s murder. The police also arrested two gunmen involved in the crime.
The Punjab Police, in their submissions to the Delhi court seeking Bishnoi’s transit remand, said that the gangster coordinated the attack, and was in touch with Goldy Brar, a Canada-based gangster and member of Bishnoi’s gang.
The threat perception for Bishnoi, his many accomplices, and fears of a gang war following of Moosewala is so high that the prison department moved at least 30 gangsters lodged in jails at Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini.
“Though transfer of prisoners is a routine exercise, but this time it was done keeping in mind the members of different gangs that have been lodged together in the same jail. The fear of a gang war was high after the recent arrest of Bishnoi and his accomplices in the Moosewala murder case. Through the transfer we have ensured that members of two rival gangs are not lodged together in the same jail,” a prison department aware of the transfer details said while asking not to be named.
Across the three prisons, there are 16 sub-jails, where around 20,000 prisoners are lodged.
The prisoners are kept in cells and barracks and high-risk cells. In high-risk cells, several prisoners are kept in cells in a separate building or a block and constantly monitored by armed prison guards.
According to investigators, Moosewala’s murder was planned by Bishnoi and Brar. While the two are originally from Punjab, police have found that the they merged their gangs with Delhi-based gangs and made enemies in Delhi by their association with groups in the Capital. Bishnoi is now part of the Delhi-based Kala Jathedi-jitender Gogi gang.
Their main rival in Delhi is also a merger of three gangs led by Tillu Tajpuriya, Kaushal Chaudhary and Neeraj Bawana.