Alleged members of an Indian gang and its leader have been sending shivers down the spines of members of the South Asian diaspora in Canada for years, says a city councilor in Richmond, British Columbia.

Kash Heed said the Bishnoi gang, led by Lawrence Bishnoi, had been gaining notoriety and sowing fear among Indian Canadians long before the RCMP charged the syndicate this week with orchestrating violent crimes on Canadian soil.

Mounties claimed that Indian diplomats shared information about Sikh separatists in Canada with the Indian government and that senior Indian officials then passed information to the Bishnoi.

“(Lawrence Bishnoi’s) reputation precedes him,” Heed, also a former solicitor general of British Columbia and West Vancouver police chief, said in an interview.

“He is an individual prone to violence in India. A few years ago, the Bishnoi gang really started to appear on the airwaves and people were worried about it… a lot of the diaspora knows about Lawrence Bishnoi and his activities (in India).

The federal government on Monday expelled six Indian diplomats after the RCMP said it had credible evidence that Indian agents played a role in crimes including the murder of Canadian citizens and extortion.

“What we saw, from the RCMP perspective, was the use of organized crime elements and that was publicly attributed and claimed by one organized crime group in particular, the Bishnoi group,” he said. said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin in a press release. conference Monday.

“And we believe this group is linked to agents of the Indian government.”

India insisted it had received no evidence of government involvement and ordered six Canadian diplomats to leave India.

Heed said he could not speculate on how the gang and diplomats might be involved in crimes including the murder last year of activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, head of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, England. British Columbia.

But he said cases of violent extortion linked to the Bishnoi have been well documented by Canadian and Indian investigators in recent years.

Ritesh Lakhi agrees. The Indian journalist, who was a reporter for an ethnic radio show in British Columbia before moving to India, covered the rise of the Bishnoi gang.

“Bloodbaths involving Bishnoi gang members have been taking place for years in India,” Lakhi said in an interview.

“Now this whole gang phenomenon has attracted worldwide attention. »

In December 2023, police in Abbotsford, British Columbia said they were investigating extortion involving wealthy members of the South Asian community. They said the suspects were believed to have links to the Bishnoi.

Earlier this year, police in Ontario and Alberta said they were investigating similar extortion schemes, including some in which bullets were fired at businesses.

Heed said he knew of a British Columbia businessman who lost $3 million because of threats from people claiming to be members of the Bishnoi.

The National Investigation Agency, India’s anti-terrorism law enforcement agency, said in 2023 that Lawrence Bishnoi was operating his “terrorist syndicate from prisons in different states” in India and through an associate in Canada .

Lakhi said the gangster was born in the northern Indian state of Punjab and immersed himself in violence while studying law. He was involved in street fights and arson with other student leaders over university politics.

During a scuffle, Lakhi said that Bishnoi’s cousin had been murdered and it is believed that Bishnoi shot the killer dead in revenge a year later.

Bishnoi also continued to commit less serious crimes, including arson and extortion, and was imprisoned several times. Lakhi said he shared cells with notorious gang members and eventually took over a group that had lost its leader.

Bishnoi has been in prison since 2015, Lakhi said, and the charges against him continue to pile up. Bishnoi is accused of orchestrating violent extortion while behind bars using a cell phone.

“This can be interpreted as one of the factors that lend credence to the theory that the Indian state could protect Lawrence Bishnoi,” Lakhi said.

He said Bishnoi had recently gained notoriety by threatening to kill beloved Indian celebrities, politicians and business leaders.

Lakhi said the Bishnoi gang last week claimed responsibility for the shooting of a top politician in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, ahead of a key election in the state.

In 2022, Bishnoi was accused of being behind the violent shooting of Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala, who briefly lived in Canada.

Lakhi alleged that Bishnoi had already expanded his network by that time in Canada, pointing out that a brother of an ally in India had moved to British Columbia and helped recruit vulnerable Indians.

A 2021 court document says a student who was moving to Canada on a permit in 2017 sought asylum because he was contacted and asked to join the gang and sell drugs.

The document says the student was beaten by members of a Bishnoi gang before he left for Canada. His application was refused.

Heed said he has heard of other cases of Canadian gangsters unconnected to the Bishnoi, referring to the group because of the fear its name evokes.

“And now the RCMP has significantly raised the profile (of the Bishnoi) here in Canada,” he said.