A special enclosure inside the police vehicle being used for producing gangster Sampat Nehra in Panchkula court. (Express photo/Jaipal Singh)
SINCE THE arrest of student leader turned gangster Sampat Nehra, the son of a retired ASI of Chandigarh Police and close associate of Lawrence Bishnoi, a total 12 members of the Bishnoi-Nehra gang have been arrested by the police forces of Punjab and Rajasthan in the last 20 days underlining the spread of this gang. Five more are at large.
The gang took birth in Chandigarh under the garb of student politics in 2011, and in under a decade, it had spread across Punjab, Rajasthan and the southern part of Haryana.
Eight gang members comprising five of Punjab and three of Haryana were arrested by the Punjab Police and three others were arrested by Sri Ganganagar police in a joint operation in Mohali.
Sampat Nehra, wanted in over 27 heinous crimes, was arrested in Hyderabad by STF of Haryana Police on June 6.
The Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU), a student body active since 1997, which vanished from the Panjab University scene in 2014 when most of its leaders joined the Congress-backed NSUI or the Shiromani Akali Dal-backed SOI, is the platform through which Lawrence-Nehra gang tried to establish its feet in Rajasthan.
Under the leadership of Sampat Nehra, SOPU had participated in the student elections of Tantia University of Sri Ganganagar in 2016 but was defeated.
SOPU was founded by Dyal Partap Singh Randhawa at PU to counter one of the strong student unions of that time, PUSU (Punjab University Student Union). Randhawa is now a practising advocate at the Punjab and Haryana High Court and a senate member of PU.
“I along with my friends formed SOPU for a noble cause and with a motto, which was the welfare of students and promoting the participation of students in politics. I remained the student president of PU for two consecutive terms between 1998 and 2000. When I left the PU after completion of my law graduation, I handed over the command of party to the new generation. Seriously, now it pains me to see the condition of SOPU at PU,” said Randhawa.
Lawrence Bishnoi entered SOPU in 2011 when he was made SOPU president of DAV College-10. Sampat Nehra was a student of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College (SGGSC)-26. He met Lawrence during the 2012 student elections.
“Unlike Lawrence, who had been arrested in three cases of assault, rioting and firing bullets in air to threaten opponents in campus politics, Sampat Nehra was only involved in two cases in Chandigarh and none of the cases is linked with student politics. At present, there is no presence of SOPU at PU,” said a former member of SOPU, who is now attached with SOI.
Bishnoi completed his graduation from DAV-10 while facing trial in several cases in 2013 but Nehra never finished. He couldn’t clear compartments in two subjects in BA-II at SGGSC-26 in 2013.
ASP (Sriganganagar), Surinder Singh Rathore, head of a special unit constituted for nailing down Lawrence-Nehra gang, told Chandigarh Newsline that there was no trace of Lawrence-Nehra gang in Rajasthan before 2014.
Sampat Nehra takes a selfie with Lawrence Bishnoi (in red cap) and other gang members. (Express photo)
“This gang got active in Rajasthan when it tried to enter student politics through SOPU by participating in student union elections of Tantia University, Sri Ganganagar, back in 2016. Between 2014 and 2016, this gang tried to extort money from local businessmen but failed. To create panic and terror, the gang members executed three murders and made two foiled attempts of murders. In 2016, SOPU was defeated in the student elections at Tantia University and the main reason behind its defeat was a local history-sheeter and gangster, Vinod Sheron, alias Jat, alias Jordon, 30, who did not allow SOPU leaders to establish a foothold in Sri Ganganagar, due to his own influence in the local student politics,” said Rathore.
Jordon was gunned down allegedly by Nehra and his two associates at a local gym on May 23 this year. Two other assailants are Ankit Bhadoo, a resident of Abohar, and one juvenile, who belongs to Sonipat district of Haryana. Jordon had also circulated a photograph of Lawrence in objectionable posture on social networking sites in 2016, said Rathore.
“Indeed, Lawrence-Nehra gang started from Chandigarh but most of this gangs’ members are from Abohar district, which is a native place of Lawrence Bishnoi. Going by the Facebook profile of Lawrence and his other gang members, SOPU is the logo of this gang. We ascertained the status of SOPU in Chandigarh through Chandigarh Police and came to know that SOPU has almost vanished from student politics in Chandigarh.”
Read | The ones who got caught
To promote its participation in the student politics in Sri Ganganagar, SOPU created a Facebook page JOIN SOPU Rajasthan in August 2016.
Chandigarh Police Inspector Ranjodh Singh, who arrested two associates of Lawrence and Nehra, said, “Interrogation of one of the associates, Inderpreet Singh, alias Perry, a former student of DAV-10 and member of SOPU party, revealed that the popularity of Lawrence has not decreased among his fellow students. Lawrence is still a favourite among them. Perry claimed that Sampat Nehra was in touch of Lawrence and the former used to pass his instructions through him to other gang members.”
Lawrence Bishnoi who escaped police custody near Kharar in January 2015 was again arrested in August 2015 and is currently lodged at Bharatgarh jail in Rajasthan.
Perry, Sampat, Deepak Kumar alias Tinu, and Bhola Shooter are alleged to have murdered Kotakpura-based gangster Lovey Deora in Punjab on July 12, 2017.
Perry and Bhola were arrested in Chandigarh two weeks later.