Bishnoi, aides used WhatsApp from Gujarat jail to extort victims: U.S. DoJ
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Wednesday (July 8, 2026) that Lawrence Bishnoi, a Punjab-born gangster currently lodged in a high-security prison in
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Wednesday (July 8, 2026) that Lawrence Bishnoi, a Punjab-born gangster currently lodged in a high-security prison in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, used WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging applications as recently as December 2025 and January 2026 to allegedly extort and attempt to extort $5 million from victims in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks in the U.S. The DoJ has accused him and his associate Satinderjeet Singh, alias Goldy Brar, of ordering the assassination of pro-Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. It said the “enterprise routinely targeted prominent religious, social, and political leaders with violence, and used these high-profile acts to terrorise and extort members of the community.” For instance, in November 2023, Bishnoi claimed responsibility for a shooting that occurred at the Vancouver, Canada, residence of a prominent Indian actor and singer, and warned in a Facebook post written in Punjabi that “no one can save you from us”. According to his lawyer Rajni Khatri, Bishnoi is lodged at Sabarmati jail since 2023 in solitary confinement and is under 24/7 CCTV surveillance. The Union Home Ministry has invoked Section 303 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, which prohibits his movement outside the jail, and he participates in court hearings through video conference.
If police from outside the State have to interrogate him, they come to the prison. According to a chargesheet filed by the Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2022 against Bishnoi and others, he has 84 cases registered against him in Delhi, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, and Punjab with the first case dating back to 2010. Khatri said that Bishnoi has been discharged or acquitted in 40 other cases. “If he was using WhatsApp to carry out the extortion activities from jail, then authorities should give supporting evidence. He is under 24/7 surveillance in the prison. He only meets his legal team,” she said. Before Sabarmati, Bishnoi was lodged for a year in a Punjab jail and in Delhi’s Tihar jail prior to that. There was no response from State or Central government officials on the allegations made by the U.S. authorities. The NIA’s chargehseet echoed the allegations made by the U.S. DoJ about Bishnoi running his racket from the prison. The DoJ said that by “using contraband cellphones and other voice-over internet protocol devices smuggled into his jail cell, Bishnoi personally directed political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortions, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and other crimes committed by members and associates of the Bishnoi enterprise worldwide.” In 2022, the NIA had said that Bishnoi “runs the entire operations of the gang from within the jail”.
The BriefWire