This village in Punjab still remembers ‘Milky’

Fond of western names, his parents Lavinder Bishnoi and mother Sunita Bishnoi christened their first-born Lawrence. R.D Bishnoi, a classmate of Lavinder, says the Bishnois are a well-heeled, landed family. “They are an affluent family, their forefathers had hundreds of acres, even now Lavinder has nearly 100 acres in Duttaranwali village which they give on annual lease as they themselves cannot do farming.’’

Lavinder, whose uncles include a judge and police officer, also tried his hand at government service by joining the Haryana police as a constable, but he did not pursue it for long. Villagers say Lawrence and his brother Anmol had an idyllic childhood, studying at Sachkhand Convent school in Abohar. Many also remember Lawrence as a great fan of Bhagat Singh. “Lavinder was very generous with his money, the boys got a hefty pocket money and all that they wanted.”

While Lawrence ran afoul of law when he went to Chandigarh for graduation at DAV College, Anmol, a boxer, also fell into bad company. “He is lodged in a Rajasthan jail,” says a villager.

Ever since the police started frequenting the village, the Bishnois spend most of their time inside their sprawling home. Others too are wary of going near the house that has CCTV cameras. “Sab darte hain… koi unke ghar ke aas paas bhi nahi jaata,’’ said a villager.

The village with 2500 votes grows kinnow, cotton and wheat, and is about 30 km from Haryana, and 50 km from the Indo-Pak border of Fazilka district. Villagers recall that while Lawrence Bishnoi was living in the village, they had never seen him indulging in any vice. “We used to hear that he did not even drink tea what to talk of smoking or drinking,” says R.D Bishnoi.

Sarpanch Surinder Bhagria says Lawrence Bishnoi’s mother Sunita Bishnoi had filed nomination papers for sarpanch’s elections in 2018.

“There were six candidates in the fray including me and Sunita. Surprisingly, four of them extended support to Sunita. She said she would be the sarpanch only if elected unanimously, but I did not step down. So she withdrew her papers and her relative Naresh, her covering candidate, contested the election and lose to me by over 480 votes,” says Bhagria.

The sarpanch, like others, is all praise for Bishnoi’s parents. “If you see Lawrence’s parents, you can never imagine that their sons are in the world of crime.’’

R.D Bishnoi says the family has a commercial plot in Abohar and three houses in Abohar but they are lying abandoned as there is no one to take care of them. The family has to contend with police every time there is an incident involving Lawrence Bishnoi, Cops came visiting the village soon after Moosewala’s murder as well. “Such visits are usual though the parents know nothing,’’ says a villager.