Questions Over Prison Security as US DoJ Echoes NIA, Says Bishnoi Extorted US Victims Via WhatsApp From Gujarat Jail
New Delhi: The United States Department of Justice's allegation that Lawrence Bishnoi, currently held in Ahmedabad's high-security Sabarmati jail, has continued to run extortion operations through WhatsApp and other encrypted applications as recently as January 2026, has led to questions on the level of security in which Bishnoi has been kept.
The indictments say that Bishnoi's latest messaging activity targeted victims in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks in the US for roughly $5 million.
The US DoJ has accused Bishnoi and his associate Satinderjeet Singh, alias Goldy Brar, of ordering the assassination of pro-Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, describing his "enterprise" as one that has routinely targeted prominent religious, social and political leaders with violence to terrorise and extort the wider community.
The Hindu has spoken to lawyer Rajni Khatri, representing Bishnoi, who said he has been lodged in solitary confinement at Sabarmati prison under continuous CCTV surveillance since 2023 and that the Union home ministry has invoked Section 303 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita barring his movement outside jail. He added that Bishnoi attends court hearings via video conferencing and outstation police interrogate him in person at the prison.
Khatri argued Bishnoi had been discharged or acquitted in 40 cases and questioned how he could be running extortion over WhatsApp under constant watch, demanding the authorities to produce evidence. She added that he has avoided bail applications as no one is willing to stand surety given the sheer amount of cases against him. State and central authorities are yet to issue an official response.
As The Hindu noted, the DoJ's indictment closely mirrors a 2022 chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which said that Bishnoi ran his network using contraband phones and VoIP devices – a technology that allows voice and multimedia calls using a broadband internet connection – smuggled into his cell. Through this network he allegedly directed killings, extortion, kidnapping and drug and human trafficking, including the conspiracy to murder singer Sidhu Moosewala.
The NIA chargesheet claimed all the key accused in the case were incarcerated in different prisons during the planning and execution of the killing. They allegedly maintained contact with Brar, who tasked shooters to carry out the killing. Likening Bishnoi's gang to on organised syndicate comparable to Dawood Ibrahim, spanning over 700 members, the chargesheet said the gang generated thousands of crores of rupees through extortion activities, a significant part of which was sent to countries like Canada, US, Dubai, Thailand and Australia to fund "pro-Khalistan extremists," reported The Hindu.
As reported by The Wire, Bishnoi is among the 37 individuals named across three indictments under the DoJ's "Operation Hard Ball," which also implicated an allegedly corrupt Punjab police officer and separate drug and arms-trafficking networks. A detailed analysis by The Wire examining the legal path to extradition notes that no formal request has yet been made by the US and that India could choose to prosecute Bishnoi domestically first.
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