Gangster Bishnoi said won’t forgive Salman Khan over blackbuck case: Delhi cops

Pramod Kushwaha, deputy commissioner of police (special cell), who has interrogated the gangster on several occasions, said that born to a well-off farmer’s family in the sleepy hamlet of Dhattaranwali in Punjab’s Ferozepur district, Bishnoi first hogged the headline when his gang members told police that he wanted to avenge the 1998 blackbuck poaching by killing Khan.

“When Sampat Nehra, a key member of Bishnoi gang, was arrested from Bengaluru in June 2018, he too had disclosed about the gang’s plan to eliminate Salman Khan — who was convicted in the blackbuck poaching case and sentenced to five years in jail in 2018,” said Kushwaha. “Lawrence belongs to the Bishnoi community, for whom blackbucks, a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, are sacred. Surprisingly, most of the gangsters associated with the core group of Lawrence Bishnoi are fanatically religious.”

None of the hardcore members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang has any vices and they keep fast every Tuesday. “Bishnoi candidly admitted during all his interrogation that his community members will never forgive Salman Khan unless he tenders apology for killing the blackbuck,” the DCP added.

Meanwhile, a senior officer of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch – who was recently in Delhi to interrogate Bishnoi in connection with the threat letter to Salman Khan and his father Salim Khan — said the police have identified the persons involved in delivering the letter.

“During the interrogation of Moosewala murder accused Siddhesh Hiraman Kamble, alias Mahakal, who is a member of the Bishnoi gang, it was revealed that Bishnoi’s aide Vikram Barad had taken the letter to Salim Khan,” the officer said, requesting anonymity. “Bishnoi had issued the letter to the actor and his screenwriter father Salim Khan. Three people from his gang had come from Jalore in Rajasthan to Mumbai to drop the letter and met Mahakal.”

Religious ideology enmeshing with criminals is not a new phenomenon these days, a senior police officer said. Gangster Vikas Dubey was arrested by the Ujjain Police on July 9, 2020 from the premises of the Mahakal Temple there – around 10 days after eight police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police, were gunned down in Bikru village in Uttar Pradesh by Dubey and his men. A day later, Dubey was killed in a police encounter after he allegedly attempted to flee while being taken to Kanpur from Ujjain.

Alok Singh, commissioner of police, Gautam Budh Nagar, said this emergence of criminals with strong religious beliefs, has two possible meanings. “Recently, we stopped the construction of a worshipping place in Noida, which was being constructed with the protection money collected by an associate of gangster Sundar Bhati. While the first possible reason for criminals being religious is the fear in their conscience that only worshipping could veil their crimes, the other reason is to project themselves as holy to hoodwink the police and public,” Singh said. “For any enforcement agency, being religiously benevolent never means to hide the criminal activities.”

A don-turned-politician of Bihar, who is serving life term in a murder case in jail there, recently told HT that religious belief is fundamental right of every Indian. “I have never been to any religious place in the last 10-odd years, yet I don’t find anything wrong, if a gangster performs spiritual or religious practices behind bars. Even making religious entities with looted money by the bandits of Chambal is not a new story. But I always condemn if a criminal kills someone for money and then uses it for charity for religious entities. Also, the court of law is above any kangaroo court of religious justice in our country,” the former MP said.

©Hindustan Times