Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar, former university buddies and among the most feared gangsters in South Asia, are believed to have parted ways after over a decade of association marked by murder, contract killings, extortion and arms trafficking.

Sources in the security agencies said why the two thirty-somethings broke up was still unclear but hinted that it could be a combination of reasons, from an ego clash to disputes over extortion money and territory.

“Recently, we received information that Bishnoi and Brar have parted ways and turned bitter rivals. Their split could lead to a bloody gang war,” a National Investigation Agency official said.

Bishnoi, in jail since 2014, has continued to direct his gang’s activities from behind bars with impunity — till recently, with the help of Brar who operates from the US.

He is said to enjoy the BJP-led Centre’s patronage, too.

Bishnoi, whom Canada has implicated along with the Indian government in the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on its soil, has been lodged in Sabarmati jail in BJP-ruled Gujarat for almost two years after being shifted out
of Tihar.

The Centre has barred state governments and state agencies from seeking Bishnoi’s custody.

From inside jail, Bishnoi has been linked to the high-profile shooting outside actor Salman Khan’s Mumbai home two years ago, and to the murder of powerful NCP leader Baba Siddique.

Sources said Bishnoi and Brar ran a 700-strong gang, whose members included suspected militants and drug runners, in Canada, the US and the United Arab Emirates apart from India.

Back home, the gang operates mostly in north India, especially in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Bishnoi was enrolled in Panjab University, Chandigarh, and was eyeing a career in politics when he joined the students’ council in 2011 and came in contact with Brar. They soon graduated from university politics to the world of crime.

Oddly, “Brar” happens to be Bishnoi’s real surname —he was born Balkaran Brar while Goldy was born Satinderjit Singh.

Sources in the security agencies said that since the rift, Goldy had begun working with Azerbaijan-based criminal Rohit Godara — a former key member of the Bishnoi gang — while Bishnoi had tied up with the Canada-based Noni Rana.

Bishnoi ran his empire with the help of his younger brother Anmol and Goldy — both of whom moved toNorth America in 2017 — and carried out contract killings through a group of sharpshooters recruited from several states.

“They (Anmol and Goldy) used to select high-profile targets and chalk out plans to execute the murders armed with Bishnoi’s advice,” a Delhi police officer said.

Last October, the Bishnoi-Brar gang shot to limelight when it claimed responsibility for the murder of Baba Siddique, a three-time MLA close to Maharashtra’s power circles and Bollywood.

Around the same time, India and Canada got entangled in a diplomatic row over Nijjar’s 2023 assassination. Canadian investigators implicated Indian governmentagents, who they said were linked to an organised crime syndicate called the “Bishnoi group”.

The gang is also accused of carrying out the murders of several high-profile people, including Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala in 2022 and Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Singh in 2023.

In April 2023, the gang claimed responsibility for the firing outside Salman Khan’s home, Galaxy Apartments, in Bandra. Investigators alleged the plot had been hatched in the US by Goldy and the job assigned to two professional shooters.

Asked how Bishnoi carried out his operations from inside jail and terrorised Bollywood, security experts flagged a September 2023 Union home ministry order, under Section 268 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, saying no state government or agency can seek his custody for a year.

The section gives the government the power to bar the movement of prisoners. The order was extended by a year last September.