The Enforcement Directorate Tuesday conducted multiple raids in Haryana and Rajasthan as part of a money laundering investigation against the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, officials said. The central probe agency is raiding around a dozen locations in the two states as part of the probe being carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED’s action stems from FIRs and charge sheets filed against Bishnoi and his deputy Satwinderjit Singh alias Goldy Brar by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Haryana Police and some other state police.
Bishnoi, currently in jail, is one of the accused in the murder case of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. The Enforcement Directorate is probing the charges that Bishnoi and his gang members were allegedly sending funds generated in India through extortion and smuggling of drugs and arms to Canada and other countries that was being used by pro-Khalistan supporters.
A resident of Fazilka in Punjab, Bishnoi has been in jail since 2014 after he was arrested during an encounter with the Rajasthan Police. He was shifted to Delhi’s Tihar jail in 2021. He was later arrested by the Punjab Police on June 14, 2022, and shifted to the state in connection with the sensational murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala on May 29. Various police agencies keep taking him in custody in the cases being probed by them and hence Bishnoi keeps changing jails. “Investigations have revealed that a terrorist, gangster and drug smugglers syndicate led by Bishnoi was involved in many targeted killings and extortion from businessmen and professionals, including doctors, and this had created a widespread scare and terror among the public at large,” the NIA had said.