A dream of Canada, a gun in hand: Inside Bishnoi gang’s recruitment network

The 50-odd people linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, locked away in various jails in Mumbai for a string of recent attacks, fit a broader pattern — a ragtag army of mostly boys, allegedly lured through social media accounts for a quick ‘job’ for the gang

The accused in the Tiger Shroff shooting case after their arrest (Express photo)

16 min readNov 7, 2026 07:00 AM IST First published on: Nov 7, 2026 at 07:00 AM IST

Black hoods over their heads, nine men sat in the accused box at the back of the courtroom. Dressed in jeans or track pants, and knockoff ‘Superdry’ and ‘Puma’ T-shirts, they wore sliders or flip-flops. On a bench ahead sat two women, also in black hoods, and flanked by women police personnel. A policeman walked up to where they sat and began removing their hoods. One by one, their faces were revealed — 11 young men and women, frail, confused.

Then, as a court official began reading out their names, they stood up, one after another, their heads bowed. For the rest of the 30-minute hearing in a Mumbai special court on October 29, the 11 stood that way. They could have been a group of college students being reprimanded for bunking classes.

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