ED raids in Haryana, Raj in money laundering case against Bishnoi gang

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at nearly a dozen locations in Haryana and Rajasthan on Tuesday in connection with the jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi case, sources said.

The searches have been underway since morning, and the locations raided are the residential premises of some suspects having links with Bishnoi, who is currently in jail and is one of the accused in the murder case of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.

The raids are being conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the gang members of Bishnoi.

The Punjab Police had said that the killing of Moosewala seemed to be the result of an inter-gang rivalry and that the Bishnoi gang was involved in it.

Moose Wala was shot dead on May 29 by unidentified assailants in Punjab's Mansa district, a day after the state government curtailed his security cover. His cousin and a friend, who were travelling in a jeep with him, were also injured in the attack.

Bishnoi is facing trial for the offence committed under the stringent MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) here and was lodged in the Tihar jail.

Bishnoi was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Bathinda jail in Punjab in November 2022 in connection with a case involving a conspiracy by terror groups and criminal syndicates to carry out violent acts and sensational crimes across India.

Bishnoi was found to be orchestrating most of his conspiracies from inside the jail. The conspiracies were executed by an organised network of operatives both within the country and abroad.

In November 2023, the NIA filed the third chargesheet in the gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and Babbar Khalsa International terror gangster network case.

The second supplementary chargesheet had crucial details about the involvement of the accused persons in the terror-related activities.

The four individuals named in the chargesheet are Darman Singh alias Darmanjot Kahlon, Parveen Wadhwa alias Prince, Yudhvir Singh alias Sadhu, and Vikas Singh.

On March 24 this year, the NIA filed its initial chargesheet against 14 accused, followed by the first supplementary chargesheet on August 9 against three additional individuals.

All the accused were charged with criminal conspiracy to unleash a wave of terror under Section 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 17, 18 and 18(B) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The arrested gangster has been linked to multiple cases, including conspiracies aimed at carrying out targeted and sensational killings in several regions, spanning Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi. His involvement in these activities has been reported over the past decade.

Bishnoi has been in prison since 2014 after he was apprehended during a clash with the Rajasthan Police. He was relocated to Delhi's Tihar jail the previous year but was arrested by the Punjab Police on June 14 and shifted to Punjab in connection with the sensational homicide of singer Sidhu Moosewala on May 29.