At a time when both brothers have simultaneously returned to the centre of national attention, one confined inside Sabarmati Central Jail under renewed movement restrictions and the other freshly brought back to India and placed in NIA custody, the actions of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the courts have brought the Bishnoi syndicate back under an intense spotlight.
Even as Anmol Bishnoi, who was extradited from the US and reached India on Wednesday, was placed under arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the alleged leader of the gang, Lawrence, has remained in the jail in Gujarat for more than two-and-a-half years now.
A national newspaper, in a detailed report, has mentioned that the MHA renewed the restriction order against Lawrence Bishnoi under BNSS section 303. The paper attributed the information to a senior officer who didn’t want to be named.
The officer added that court appearances, if any, were taking place through video-conferencing.
Eleven days custody
Earlier, a Delhi Court sent jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother Anmol Bishnoi to 11 days of custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The NIA team led by Special Public Prosecutor Rahul Tyagi sought Anmol’s custody for 15 days. In its remand papers submitted before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma of Patiala House Court, the NIA said they needed gangster Anmol’s custody to “collect more evidence to unearth the conspiracy”.
The agency also said that they needed to find out “incriminating details” about other members of the Bishnoi gang including their locations and identities.
For a background, Lawrence came back into the limelight after his brother Anmol was refused asylum in the US.
After his asylum application was turned down by a Louisiana court in the US, gangster Anmol, who is wanted as the main plotter in the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique in October last year who was shot outside his Bandra office, was deported from the US and reached India around 1 pm on Wednesday.
What’s the source of funds?
He was arrested by the NIA on arrival. Anmol was declared a proclaimed offender in January 2025.
The NIA team which also included advocates Jatin, Shubham Goyal, Amit Rohilla, and Priyansh Raj Singh sought his custody to find out the modus operandi.
In its remand papers, the agency reportedly said that the sources of funds (for the syndicate) needed to be interrogated.
Anmol has over 30 cases pending against him across the country. The NIA also told the court that they needed Anmol’s custody to procure details of various social media accounts.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in August this year, renewed an order restricting the movement of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is lodged at Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad, for another year.
The restriction order, issued for the third consecutive year, once under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and twice under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), means that Lawrence cannot be moved out of the Gujarat prison till this order is in effect.
Restriction for Lawrence
Lawrence, alleged to be the head of a vast criminal enterprise spanning several countries, and booked in two dozen odd cases, has, by order of the union home ministry, been restricted to the premises of the prison in Ahmedabad for the past two years, since August 2023, which means that even investigation agencies and state police, if they want to question him, must do so at Sabarmati Central Jail.
Lawrence has been lodged at the Sabarmati prison since May 10, 2023, and has spent two years and seven months there as of November 10, 2025.
Anmol is among those who allegedly managed the extortion operations of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, a criminal syndicate operating in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi.
The Central agencies are focusing on his alleged role in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala in May 2022, NCP leader Baba Siddique’s killing last year, the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s house, among others. In May, 2022 Anmol fled to the US allegedly on a fake passport.
Bounty of Rs 10 lakh
In 2024, the US Immigration Department found that one of the reference letters of a company, attached to his travel documents, was forged. Anmol has been named by the NIA in two cases in which a bounty of Rs 10 lakh each had been announced.
The US Department of State had sought information about cases in which Anmol had direct involvement and financial details in March this year, four months after his arrest there in response to India’s request for his extradition in January last year.
Lawrence Bishnoi, who was earlier lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a case investigated by the NIA, was arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in April 2023, in relation with the seizure of 38.994 kg heroin worth Rs 194.97 crore off the Jakhau Coast of Kutch, on September 14, 2022.
After 14 days of police remand granted by a Kutch court, Bishnoi was sent to the Sabarmati Central jail on May 10, 2023, after his police remand ended.
Then, in August 2023, the MHA issued an order under section 268 of the Criminal Procedural Code (CrPC) against Bishnoi. This states, “The state government may, at any time, having regard to the matters specified in sub-Section (2), by general or special order, direct that any person or class of persons shall not be removed from the prison in which he or they may be confined or detained, and thereupon so long as the order remains in force, no order made under Section 267, whether before or after the order of the State Government, shall have effect in respect of such person or class of persons.”
This order, the news report mentioned, expired in August 2024, after which, the MHA, issued another order, this time under section 303 of the BNSS, as the three new criminal laws had come into effect earlier in July 2024. This order was valid for a period of one year, till August 2025.
Section 303 of the BNSS, under which the MHA renewed the restriction order against Lawrence this year, states, “303. (1) The State Government or the Central Government, as the case may be, may, at any time, having regard to the matters specified in sub-section (2), by general or special order, direct that any person or class of persons shall not be removed from the prison in which he or they may be confined or detained, and thereupon, so long as the order remains in force, no order made under section 302, whether before or after the order of the State Government, shall have effect in respect of such person or class of persons.”
Further, the report claimed that as per the NIA’s remand papers, Anmol, who knows English and Hindi, discontinued his BA LLB from Madhav University, Rajasthan in 2017.
The agency also submitted before the court that his father has been informed about the arrest and the grounds of arrest have also been supplied in the case. Tyagi, a seasoned criminal lawyer, is also handling other sensitive NIA cases as the Public Prosecutor, including the Popular Front of India case, gangster Arshdeep Dalla’s case, and the ISIS module cases.
Also Read: Bishnoi Deported To India As Agencies Probe Crime Roles https://www.vibesofindia.com/bishnoi-deported-to-india-as-agencies-probe-crime-roles/
