New Delhi, August 21, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The growing influence of organised criminal networks in Punjab and Haryana has evolved into a transnational challenge, requiring law enforcement agencies to look beyond arrests and target the communication, recruitment, finances and overseas links that sustain such gangs, according to former police officer and commentator V.N. Rai.
In an analysis published in Saviours Magazine, Rai said networks such as the Lawrence Bishnoi gang have demonstrated how organised crime can continue to function across borders even when key gang leaders are lodged in Indian prisons.
He described the Punjab-Haryana model as increasingly “fluid, transnational, Instagram-glorified, and business-driven”, with criminal networks drawing recruits through social media and maintaining links with associates abroad.
The issue has also come under judicial scrutiny. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Haryana government to place on record its policy framework and institutional measures for tackling organised gangs, including preventive policing, investigation, intelligence gathering and inter-agency coordination.
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The international dimension of the Bishnoi network was highlighted in a December 2025 report by the Canada Border Services Agency titled The Bishnoi Gang: An Emerging Threat in Canada. The report, which became public during court proceedings, linked the gang to killings, extortion threats and shootings in Canada and flagged the alleged use of immigration pathways to move operatives from India to North America.
Lawrence Bishnoi has been lodged in the high-security Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad since 2023 under restrictions on his transfer or physical custody by police forces from other states. Rai, however, noted that imprisonment has not necessarily eliminated a gang leader’s ability to influence criminal activity through associates and intermediaries.
“Gangsters based in Indian jails operate in tandem with associates in Canada/US/Central Asia,” Rai wrote, pointing to the alleged use of social media for recruitment, extortion, contract killings and drug-related money laundering.
He also highlighted the role of publicity in strengthening gang influence. Controversial video-conference interviews involving Bishnoi emerged while he was in Punjab and Rajasthan Police custody in 2022. A subsequent investigation found that police personnel had allegedly facilitated the interviews, leading to the dismissal of a DSP and suspension of six officers.
Rai argued that social media videos claiming responsibility for crimes can amplify fear among targets while enhancing the gangs’ appeal among potential recruits.
Target the entire criminal ecosystem
Rai said conventional policing, while necessary, cannot by itself dismantle organisations that function like businesses.
“Organised crime is a business. You don’t shut a business by neutralising its delivery boys,” he wrote.
He identified recruitment and command-and-control mechanisms as two key areas requiring greater attention. Young people from villages and economically vulnerable communities can become recruits, making community-level intervention important. He suggested involving career counsellors, social influencers, religious leaders and political activists in efforts to counter the attraction of gang culture.
To disrupt command structures, Rai proposed stronger measures to restrict communication between imprisoned gang leaders and their associates, including frequent shifting of inmates and improved technological coordination between prisons, intelligence agencies and police forces.
Financial disruption, he said, must be equally central to the strategy. Extortion, narcotics and contract killings generate revenues that help gangs sustain operations and recruit new members. Rai advocated systematic financial investigations, asset confiscation and a dedicated financial task force to attack these economic foundations.
He placed the current Punjab-Haryana gang phenomenon in the broader history of organised crime in India, comparing it with criminal networks associated with caste conflicts and political patronage in Bihar during the 1990s, land, mining and contract mafias in Uttar Pradesh in the 2000s, and Mumbai’s underworld, which developed international links through smuggling, real estate, film financing and hawala networks.
The Punjab-Haryana gangs, he argued, represent a newer phase in which criminal activity, digital influence and overseas networks operate together.
Crackdown extends overseas
Punjab and Haryana Police have established specialised units and strengthened intelligence and coordination mechanisms to counter such networks, while arrests, surveillance operations and prosecutions have continued.
The crackdown has also acquired an international dimension. In July, the US-led Operation Hard Ball resulted in 24 arrests across the US, Canada and Europe, with 37 members of three Punjab-origin syndicates charged. The operation targeted networks allegedly linked to Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Ravinder Dhanda.
Indian agencies have simultaneously pursued alleged gang members and associates abroad. Anmol Bishnoi, Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother, was deported from the US to India in November 2025 and arrested by the National Investigation Agency.
Haryana Police arrested Mamta Rani following her extradition from Russia in a case linked to a Lawrence Bishnoi associate. In July, Spain arrested alleged Bishnoi associate Goldy Dhillon following inputs from Punjab Police, the NIA and Interpol.
Haryana gangster Venkat Garg was also extradited from Georgia and brought back to India to face murder and extortion cases.
Rai stressed that arrests alone would not provide a lasting solution. He called for speedy trials, witness protection, financial investigations, stronger prison security, intelligence sharing and preventive policing to function as an integrated strategy.
The broader objective, he said, should be to reduce the appeal of gang culture among young people and provide credible alternatives through rehabilitation, community intervention and legitimate employment opportunities.
The challenge, therefore, extends beyond apprehending individual shooters to dismantling an ecosystem capable of recruiting in Indian villages, issuing instructions from prisons, generating criminal proceeds and maintaining influence through overseas associates.
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