Canadian police link Bishnoi gang's activities in Canada to Indian govt

A report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has said it had been "acting on behalf of the Indian government". The report, accessed by Vancouver-based Global News, alleged that the Bishnoi gang had ties to the government of India.In a report on the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, the RCMP national security division mentioned the crime group’s alleged ties to the government of India a half-dozen times in just three pages. . A copy was released to Global News on Monday under the Access to Information Act.

“The Bishnoi Crime Group is a violent criminal organization with an active, continually expanding presence in several countries, including Canada,” according to the report. Driven by greed rather than political or religious motives, the Bishnoi gang commits extortions, drug trafficking, money-laundering and contract killings, the RCMP notes. The undated three-page report by the RCMP, the national police service of Canada, mentions the Bishnoi gang's ties to the Indian government six times, reports Global News.

According to the RCMP, the Bishnoi gang is involved in a range of serious criminal activities, including extortion rackets, narcotics trafficking, financial laundering operations, and targeted assassinations. The main motive of the gang, the police said, was "greed" and not political or religious reasons. Amid rising incidents of extortion and shootings, the Canadian government added the Bishnoi gang to its list of terrorist groups last September. The listing makes no mention of the Indian government. But the RCMP report, prepared “to provide situational awareness on the Lawrence Bishnoi Crime Group” and its “key individuals,” refers repeatedly to India’s alleged association with the gang.

India’s High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik has accused Ottawa of failing to act against extremist networks operating from its soil, even as a classified RCMP report alleged that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was running a transnational criminal network from a jail in Gujarat and was “acting on behalf of the Indian Government”. In an interview with Canada’s CBC, Patnaik said successive Canadian governments had “failed for nearly four decades” to curb extremist groups, citing the 1985 Air India Flight 182 bombing as an example of Ottawa’s poor track record in tackling terrorism.