Amidst a crackdown on gangsters and their syndicates, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reportedly held discussions with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to shift around 12 gangsters imprisoned in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab jails to Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These gangsters are said to be operating their syndicates from behind bars.
The NIA had earlier requested that up to 25 gangsters be transferred from jails in northern India to those in southern states in a letter to the MHA. The NIA list included gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who has been named as the prime accused in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case.
Reportedly the initial proposal was to transfer the gangsters to prisons in South India, however, this would be an extensive procedure since permission would have to be obtained from the state governments. Since the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a Union territory administered by the MHA, the procedure will be expedited. The agency is currently seeking legal opinion as well, Indian Express quoted an MHA source as saying.
Moreover, the NIA is also contemplating shifting the gangsters to Assam’s Dibrugarh Central Jail where Waris Punjab De chief and pro-Khalistan Amritpal Singh and his aides are imprisoned.
In August of last year, the NIA filed two FIRs against a number of gangsters in the northern states, alleging a conspiracy by a criminal syndicate with bases in both India and abroad to raise money and recruit youths to commit “sensational crimes,” including the targeted murder of prominent figures, with the goal of “striking terror in the minds of the people.”
In August of last year, the NIA filed two FIRs against a number of gangsters in the northern states, alleging a conspiracy by a criminal syndicate with bases in both India and abroad to raise money and recruit youths to commit “sensational crimes,” including the targeted murder of prominent figures, with the goal of “striking terror in the minds of the people.”
The NIA, during its investigation, found that the majority of these gangsters were “operating smoothly” from behind bars.
“NIA investigations revealed that several murder plots were planned in different states’ prisons and carried out by an organised network of operatives based abroad. We are working to dismantle the growing nexus between terrorists, gangsters, and drug smugglers, and to destroy their infrastructure and funding,” an NIA official told IE.
Recently, NIA in its chargesheet filed in a terror-gangster case alleged that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi expanded his terror network in a manner similar to that of gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
“The rise of Lawrence Bishnoi and his terror syndicate bears striking parallels to the rise of Dawood Ibrahim, a wanted terrorist, gangster, and drug kingpin who heads the notorious organised terror syndicate D-Company,” the NIA charged in its chargesheet.