Catch ’Em Young

India’s name should never get hyphenated with crime gangs. Future Lawrence Bishnois should be nipped in the bud

Prisons everywhere are notoriously porous. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne spends 19 years digging his way out of jail with a smuggled rock hammer. So, nobody’s surprised if a gangster in Gujarat’s Sabarmati Jail has access to a smuggled cellphone. But when that gangster happens to be Lawrence Bishnoi, named in a string of sensational crimes within the country and abroad – despite being kept alone under 24-hour surveillance, supposedly – such access raises many questions. And it gets embarrassing when those questions are asked by foreign investigating agencies, not his keepers.

Details of ‘Operation Hard Ball’, which dismantled foreign arms of gangs originating in India, are now public. We know that FBI and Canada’s RCMP have caught 24 persons across US, Canada and Europe in the past few days. And they’re searching for 10 others. But their most-wanted man is Bishnoi, who’s been locked up in the high-security Gujarat jail since 2023. It seems the 33-year-old has been running a transnational syndicate from jail. His men allegedly have a hand in murder, contract killing, extortion, drug smuggling, arms trafficking, kidnapping, human trafficking, etc. And their primary target is the Indian diaspora.  

This is terrible, needless to say, but it’s also damaging for Brand India. We don’t want to be seen as a nursery of international crime syndicates. Every country has its mafias, but once they get hyphenated with your name, like ‘Mexican cartel’ and ‘Colombian cartel’, the impression can be hard to shake off. So, it’s good that Indian authorities cooperated with investigators in Op Hard Ball. Reports say US officials visited India and were provided details, such as names and hideouts of the gangsters. US prosecutors will now want Bishnoi extradited to face the law, and that could be another test for Indian policy.

The country’s reputation and prestige are at stake. At a time when we are expecting trade deals with US and EU, and significant investments from all over the world, controlling crime should be a priority. That begins with a zero-tolerance approach to petty crime and disorderliness. Bishnoi was a neighbourhood bully before he became a college dada, and then a don. Canada actually designated his outfit as a terrorist entity last year. Let’s make it clear to the world that while Pakistan continues rearing Dawood Ibrahims, we don’t do that kind of thing. Also, those calls out of jail cells should stop.

https://www.dw.com/en/the-prison-economy-behind-bars-everyones-making-money/a-73832810

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/us/india-gang-arrests.html

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