From India's largest newsroom, I'm Arun George, and this is the Times of India podcast. It was a murder straight. Out of a film or perhaps will now feature in films. A former. Minister was leaving his son's office in the northwest suburb of Bandra in Mumbai in the night. As he walked out. Fireworks went off. That wasn't a surprise since it was the festival of the Sahara, when fireworks are traditionally set off. Except in this. Case as the fireworks went off. Three men.
Quickly walked towards the minister and he was shot multiple times. Bamba Siddiqui's. Killing in the suburb of Bandra on the night of October 12 made national headlines. For the audacity with which the very. Influential and rich Mumbai politician was murdered. NCP Ajit Pawar Gutkinita Baba Siddiqi Ki goalie marker. The fact that law and order has descended to this level in Mumbai is shocking and condemnable. Rashmi.
Rajput has covered crime in Mumbai for nearly two decades and writes on crime and central investigating agencies for The Economic Times. She says that even in a. City, whose gangland killings have been documented in films and. Books this. Was a major incident. She explains why the killing is
such a major concern. It is a major concern because we are going to the polls, the state goes to the poll on November 20th and this incident happening just a month before that kind of raises a lot of questions, especially on its police, whether there was any kind of Intel input, whether they were acting on that Intel input and this person was a part of the incumbent and that is the maximum or the ultimate insurance anybody could have for their safety.
So Despite that, there was an attack in the broad daylight during a festival season that raises a lot of questions and it kind of puts the city police under a lot of scrutiny. In today's. Episode We're looking at the seemingly inexplicable murder in the city of Mumbai and why it's such a worrying. Development Rashmi says that the killing in Mumbai came just after the city witnessed multiple security drills or. Potential terror threats ahead of the. Festive season.
So there was an intelligence input that was shared by the Intel agencies and they were specifically about a lot of crowded areas like Zaveri Bazaar where there is maximum footfall. Therefore there were a lot of mob drills post those Intel inputs. Siddiqui also claimed he had. Received death threats. Just 15 days before his death, he had been provided additional security and even had a Mumbai police. Official as a bodyguard when he
was killed. Rashmi says that in spite of these big security drills, this little clarity so far on how serious the threat. Was against Siddiqui. Now when in Intel agency it had shared this input, whether there was any input on Mr. Siddiqui, whether there was any intelligence by Mumbai police, whether you know Mr. Siddiqui was on the hit list of the Lawrence Vistoi gang. So all these are a major concern for the city and for the for its police and also for the government.
Bamma Siddiqui has been written about extensively post his death, but here's a quick roundup. He was in the Congress for decades. After starting as a student politician, he switched over to the Ajit Pawar LED faction of the NCP in February 2024. In the last election he contested in 2014, he declared financial assets worth ₹76,00,00,000. However, given his involvement in multiple high profile real estate deals in the region, his net worth is estimated to be
much more. His importance in the western suburbs of Mumbai also meant he was close to some of the Hindi film industry's biggest actors. He's famously credited with ending what was called a Cold War between Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan at an Iftar nearly a decade ago. After his killing, multiple Bollywood personalities
expressed shock at the incident. But when we recorded this episode on the 16th of October, Rashmi said that political parties in the state didn't seem to be making too much noise about this incident. So far we've seen that the opposition parties, they have not raised or not, there's not much clamour like the way we had when Sushant Singh Rajput incident happened. Of course, that entire incident is debated whether it's a case of suicide, mother, etcetera,
etcetera. But you know there was a lot of voices that kind of asked for justice in this case. Despite an election which is going to happen next month, you don't see anyone political, political party or the opposition asking those tough questions to the government, asking why did the police fail, How deep is the presence of the Lawrence Vishnoi gang in Mumbai? What is the state and the Centre
doing to tackle this issue? Despite Mr. Siddiqui having presence not just in the political circles, he had a huge presence and lot of friends from the Bollywood fraternity, from the business fraternity. This person was somebody who had friendship across various kind of industries and Despite that I feel that the that the clamour is less. Maybe I might be wrong, maybe as we progressed before to the election, maybe this might issue might be raised.
But so far it is the media who is doing the talking, asking the questions, and we don't see any one political party raising this
issue. By the morning after the killing, there was already a prime suspect gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. The gangster, who's originally from Punjab, is currently lodged in the Sabarmati jail in Gujarat. His operations were believed to be limited to states like Delhi and Haryana in the north of India. Then he was linked to the killing of Hardeep Singh Niger in Canada.
The killing is at the centre of the diplomatic spat between India and Canada. Presently, Rashmi says that while the gangster may enjoin outside reputation, the gangs operations are much like any other gang that the city has seen in the past. Lawrence Vishnoi gang is like any other gang working in Mumbai but it has a very sophisticated
way of functioning. So what it does is that first of all it hires shooters which who are rookie might not have so much of criminal records, might do the killing for a few ₹1000 or a few lakh rupees. These are people who are unemployed, taken from places like UP or Haryana, Rajasthan. So they come from mostly from non crime background. They would not have any criminal antecedents. This would be the first time very young youngsters.
You know one of the shooters in this particular case, he claimed he was 17 years old. Of course, the Mumbai Police then shared the record saying that he is 19 years old. But these are young kids between the age group of 17 to 24 who are doing this for a few ₹1000 or a few lakh rupees.
Then there is the there are these mid level operators who are responsible for providing logistical support, for providing the money to ensure there is a safe haven or there is a safety home in Mumbai or any other place where they carry out this particular attack. Provide the weapon like in this case the person who the police is looking for, Shubham Lonkar. He is the mid level operative of the gang.
The Vishnu gang made its presence felt in Mumbai after a shooting outside actor Salman Khan's home in Bandra in April 2024. While no one was hurt and the alleged gunmen were arrested, it was a bold statement. Bishnoi threatened to kill Khan in 2018 for the actors role in killing a black buck in Rajasthan nearly two decades
earlier. Bishnoi claimed it was a reprisal for targeting the animal that is revered by the Bishnoi community in Rajasthan. Not surprisingly, it wasn't taken very seriously, that is, until the April attack. Siddiqui's killing was also linked to his proximity to Salman Khan quickly enough. Khans home in Bandra is
presently under high security. We asked Rashmi whether after these two incidents, the profile of the Lawrence Bishnoy gang has risen significantly in Mumbai. You spoke about the operations aspect of it, but in terms of influence in the city, despite the Salman Khan shooting, does the Lawrence Vishnu going have any kind of influence within the city in terms of, you know, the stray extortion events that would happen earlier and things like that? Is this gang as visible and as
operational in the city? I feel that these two incidents, the Salman Khan incident and the killing of Mr. Siddiqui, these two incidents are the incidents that the Vishnoi gang would take it as their so to say. Report card to to start the.
Extortion racket in Mumbai because so for example, now after this incident, if there is any extortion call that is made and the person says he's from the Lawrence Vishnoi gang, the other party would be scared because you know these people have been successful in conducting at least 2 firing
attacks. The extortion racket, so to say in Mumbai which has seen a vacuum on lull in the last couple of years, especially from the late 2000, it might be kind of reactivated by the Lawrence Vishnoi gang because they are trying to be that gang that wants to take over that space. You have the big business houses here, you have the politicians here, builders, you have the Bollywood here.
If they want to target Mumbai, they do now have a kind of background so to say, you know, because they have been covered vividly by the press. So it is a concern for the police also because they would like to eliminate this concern because after the 90s or in the 2000's, the Mumbai police managed to kind of eradicate the presence of the Dawood gang or
the Chhota Rajan gang. And now with a Lawrence Bishnoi gang coming in the foray and trying to make its presence dominant here in Mumbai, that would be something that the Mumbai Police now will actively look at and try to figure out the way to kind of, you know, bring them down or ensure that they arrest this incident. A lot of the Lawrence Vishnui gangs in cities like Delhi and Gurgaon have mirrored those of
Mumbai gangs. Incidents where threatening calls are made, a gunman turns up and shoots in an office and killings are done over unpaid extortion demands are straight out of the playbook of the Mumbai gangsters. The gangsters and underworld of Mumbai have been dissected in great detail over the decades. The stories of Dawood Ibrahim and Sadashiv Nikhalje, better known as Chhotarajan, have been the stuff of many reports, books and films.
At one time, the gangsters would even give interviews to select journalists to claim or disclaim their role in attacks. Rashmi has seen the gangs operations evolve over the decades and since the gangs had begun changing what they focused
on around the 2000s. In the 90s, it was the Daoud gang or the Chhota Rajan gang which was responsible for all those extortion calls all all the murders that happened on the streets of Mumbai. Subsequently, the Mumbai Police came with this ingenious idea of. Having an encounter squad, they were the one who carrying all these. Various encounters, but they kind of so to, so to say, help in cleansing the system brought Mumbai back in terms of getting this cleared out.
But then even the gang started changing the business courses. You know, no more extortion was the main business. Even if you see the Daoud Ibrahim gang or the Chota Rajan gang then moved into other businesses like drugs or betting or even for that matter if they wanted to do extortion, it was not limited to Bollywood. It was then being the one carrying out the projects on behest of certain builders.
This was very organized, a syndicated mafia where you had certain builders having links to certain groups and they were the one who were doing the development or redevelopment projects in Mumbai. So, so I would say from the 90s to the 2000, it kind of change into they kind of had a very organized way of conducting their crimes. And then you found this, especially the Dowdy Brian gang, the D gang, metamorphosizing and getting into terrorist acts.
Rashmi said the criminal underworld of Mumbai no longer believes in dealing in extortion calls which put them and their operations in the cross hairs of the law. Like any enterprise, they've diversified into activities that yield more. At lower risk? The gangs are there, it's not that they have gone but they are doing different kind of activities. The online betting is a business that runs into 10,000 crores.
If you see that being the proceeds of crime, who are the people who are helping them, providing the hawala operators or providing the people who are required in the dark web to conduct these operations. These are people from the underworld. Therefore we don't see them doing shootouts or you know dirtying the streets with blood.
But the businesses have changed and money has moved from other to other businesses like drugs or online betting which makes more money and more lucrative businesses for these gang operations. Rashmi says that in the case of the Bishnui gang, they have shown that they can operate in a very organized manner even in a city like Mumbai, a place that they're not considered to have too much influence.
For example, in the Salman Khan case, what we understood during the course of the investigation that there was not just one particular model so to say that was working on this. There was actually another model which was which was stationed near his farmhouse in Panvel. And they were the one also wrecking his house in Panvel and trying to figure out when does that actor visit that home and what are his movements and all
that. So if suppose this particular model which was supposed to carry out about the operations at the Bandra home fail, then it was the Panvel model that would conduct the operations and none of the models were aware about each other. But Rashmi also points out that even the so-called sophistication of the gang is straight out of a playbook that has been used by gangsters for decades in the city. Say that this is the first of its kind where a gang is so sophisticated, organized.
I don't think so. That would be right because even the Dawood gang is very sophisticated in its approach. When it had its own shooters, it had its own people who would manage the operations might who are the people who are arranging for the finances. And then of course you had people in the Dawood Ibrahim gang, that is the Dawood Ibrahim Chota Shakeel. They were the one who were taking calls on who their target was.
So in that way, it is like a pyramid structure where one person is taking all the calls and then the responsibilities are divided. Now, of course, because you know, technology has also been helpful to these people in managing the operation. Like for example in the case of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, what we hear from a sources is that most of these operations are queried. By Lawrence Bishnoi from his Sabarmati jail, where he's
launched. In terms of gangs, have you ever had a gang leader, so to say, who is sitting in jail and at the same time said to be running operations? Yeah, across the country. We do. We did have Chota Rajan. We still still find some cases where we with some call or something being made. The larger question is why are they managing to operate and they're doing operations in India? Why are the agencies here not taking action against them? I think so. That is the bigger question to
ask. For now, the Mumbai Police are still trying to figure out why the killing of Baba Siddiqui took. Place. But they may as well be in Canada when it comes to getting access to Lawrence Bishnoi. Despite knowing exactly where the head of the gang is, they're unable to get his custody. The Ministry of Home Affairs has passed an order preventing Bishnoi, who's also accused of helping plan the murder in Canada, from being taken out of the Sabermati jail in Gujarat
for any reason. Rashmi says that puts a spoke in the wheel of the Mumbai Police that would like to. Limit the rise. Of Lawrence Bishnoi in the city. Even the Mumbai Police are struggling to even get the. Custody or to question Lawrence Bishnoi in Sabar Mati who start launched Sabar Mati jail. So that's a very unique. Position that the police is in because post the incident of a shooting at the actors residence. The Mumbai police did make attempts to question Lawrence
Bishnoi Sabarmati jail. But there is a particular section under the Code of Criminal procedure that has been cited and that is the reason why the police is not able to question. Of course, the Mumbai police will make a fresh attempt. But when you are not able to go to the person who's responsible to carrying out, who's able to manage operations or to say from jail and his operatives are functioning and there are people who are loyal to him.
And if you're not able to figure out how is this functioning and question the main person, then it is a bit difficult and tricky also for the city police to then kind of rein in the operations. Today's episode was produced by Jayaraj Singh and Sahil Gupta. For a daily spotlight on people, ideas and stories that matter, subscribe to us. We're available on the Times of India website, Spotify, Apple, Amazon, or wherever else you get
your podcasts. For any new steps of feedback, mail me at arun.george@timesgroup.com.