The three shootings that occurred in Mumbai in the last two years are allegedly linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. targeting actor Salman Khanthe late NCP leader Baba Siddique and now director Rohit Shetty They have revived memories of the city’s underworld past. But police say the comparison to the organized crime era of the 1990s is only partially accurate.
Unlike previous gangs that relied on traceable international phone numbers of known shooters and open statements of responsibility, Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang is operating through a much more diffuse and deniable model. Investigators say the group uses Voice over Internet Protocol-based calls, disposable shooters with no criminal records, and fleeting social media posts that leave little to no digital trace. Combined with fear among potential targets and a lack of formal complaints, this has made it difficult for police to even map the scale of the gang’s activities.
According to officers, the lack of formal complaints has left police unclear about the extent of extortion attempts, if any, carried out by the gang.
Forensic officials conducting an inspection at Rohit Shetty’s house on Sunday after the shooting (Express Photo by Akash Patil).
While the gang claimed in a threatening message posted online after the shooting outside Rohit Shetty’s residence that it had been making calls to Bollywood, police say they have received no complaints. The combination of fear and technology has meant that these activities remain largely under the police radar.
“The biggest change that has taken place compared to the past is that earlier we knew the international numbers that gangsters used and which we could trace. We could know who they called and threatened even when celebrities did not turn up. Therefore, we could approach celebrities informally and give them the confidence to come forward and lodge a complaint, which worked on most occasions,” the officer said.
“Now that VoIP calls are being used, unless we have some technical details about the devices being used, we cannot track them. And as these devices keep changing, it becomes difficult to track such calls and find out who is being threatened,” the officer added.
“Even in Rohit Shetty’s case, though the social media post indicates some kind of communication, he has told us that he has not received any such calls. Even if such calls are made, people may not come forward out of fear. And since in many cases these do not appear on our radar, we cannot reach out and assure people to lodge complaints. This has become a big challenge in keeping track of the gang’s activities,” the officer said.
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Investigators say another major change from the past is the use of new shooters for each operation instead of known gang members.
Previous gangs relied on snipers identified as Firoz Kokani of the Dawood gang or Umed Ur Rehman of the Rajan gang and the police kept detailed files on their networks.
“If a particular shooter was involved in the shooting, we were immediately able to connect the dots and take down the entire network. We knew where they lived, who their family and friends were,” the officer said.
In the Salman Khan case, the accused were from northern Indian states and the police described them as “fans” of the Bishnoi gang. In the case of Baba Siddique, the gang used Shubham Lonkar’s network, along with contacts in northern India. In the last case, all those involved were from Pune and were organized by Lonkar through its local network.
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“These are youths who have no criminal record. They come from poor families and are in love with these gangs, mainly in the case of Bishnoi gang, through social media and they also approach the gang through social media expressing their desire to work for them,” the police officer said.
“In Lonkar’s case, there were young people from his locality who admired him. Only one of them had a record related to a fight in which he was involved.”
“Before, gang members were known to have criminal records and were easily identifiable. They also received good pay. Now these guys are new and receive a pittance,” the officer said.
“In the Baba Siddique shooting, the gang initially approached experienced shooters to carry out the murder. However, the shooters demanded Rs 1.5 lakh from the Bishnoi gang. They refused and eventually the Bishnoi gang got amateurs to do the shooting and paid Rs 1.5 lakh for it,” a senior officer said.
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Police say even the way gangs claim responsibility has changed. “Before, when the underworld carried out dismissals to intimidate their victims, they themselves called the media and ‘claimed responsibility for the attack.'”
“Nowadays, even though they claim credit, they ensure that they can be denied in future. The Bishnoi gang publishes a post on a social media platform, takes a screenshot and then deletes the post. The screenshot is then circulated. This ensures that the URL of the link cannot be traced. In future, the screenshot will hardly have evidentiary value with high denial,” the officer added.