Tiger Shroff case: Why can’t Mumbai Police take Lawrence Bishnoi into custody? The legal hurdle explained

A Union Home Ministry order restricts the transfer of the jailed gangster. It creates a legal barrier for investigators pursuing cases against him.

New Delhi: The Mumbai Police is investigating several attacks and threats allegedly carried out by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The recent shooting at actor Tiger Shroff’s car is also among the cases under investigation. Bishnoi is lodged in Gujarat’s Sabarmati Central Jail, where a Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) order bars his transfer and prevent investigators from taking him into custody for questioning.

The gang has been named in investigations involving the firing outside actor Salman Khan's Bandra residence in April 2024, the murder of former Maharashtra Minister Baba Siddique in October that year and an extortion demand involving filmmaker Rohit Shetty. The recent attack has added another case to the list of incidents being investigated for possible links to the gang.

The police are working to establish the roles of individual suspects and the extent of the alleged network's involvement. Although Lawrence and his brother Anmol Bishnoi, who is held at Delhi’s Tihar Jail, are named as wanted accused in Mumbai Police chargesheets, neither has been brought into the cases being heard in city courts. They have not been named as an accused in the attack on Shroff so far.

The restriction on Bishnoi's removal from Sabarmati Jail was imposed in August 2023. The order was issued under Section 268 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which allowed the government to prevent certain prisoners from being taken out of the prison where they were held. The corresponding provision under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which replaced the CrPC in July 2024, is Section 303.

What the legal restriction means

Section 268 of the CrPC allowed the government to stop investigating agencies from taking a prisoner into their custody and moving him out of the jail where he is held. The decision could be based on the nature of the offence, the risk of a public-order disturbance and the public interest. Section 303 of the BNSS retains this power and also allows the Central government to exercise it in cases investigated by its agencies.

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It does not, by itself, mean that investigators can never question him. The police can seek permission for questioning in the prison through the applicable judicial process, subject to the restrictions and orders in force.

Why the Tiger Shroff is important

The Mumbai Police arrested three men in connection with the October 18 incident in which gunmen allegedly fired at the actor's car in Juhu. Shroff escaped unhurt, while his driver and another person suffered injuries.

The three alleged shooters were arrested in Kota, Rajasthan, while reportedly trying to flee to Nepal. They were brought to Mumbai, where a court remanded them in police custody until October 31.

Investigators sought additional custody to recover the firearms used in the attack and establish the motive and the alleged conspiracy. The police also told the court that two mobile phones had been destroyed.

The investigation is also looking into the possible involvement of people operating beyond the spot of the shooting. The alleged association between the suspects and the Bishnoi gang is a matter for investigators to establish through evidence, including communications, financial transactions and the roles played by those arrested.

Obtaining Bishnoi's custody would give the police an opportunity for his custodial interrogation about the alleged network and any instructions that may have preceded the attack. The existing restriction means that the police must work within the procedures available for questioning a prisoner who cannot be transferred to another state.

Anmol Bishnoi faces a similar restriction

Bishnoi's younger brother, Anmol, is also facing a comparable obstacle for investigators. Restrictions on his transfer have affected attempts to bring him into the custody of agencies investigating cases in other jurisdictions.

The brothers have been described as individuals involved in the gang’s operations. Claims that instructions for crimes were issued from prison, however, require evidence establishing who communicated with the alleged shooters, who financed an operation and who selected its targets.

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The investigation into the gang's alleged activities therefore involves more than identifying the people who carried out an attack. The police will try to establish the chain of communication between the shooters, local facilitators and any people suspected of directing the operation from elsewhere.

The Chhota Rajan precedent

Mumbai's experience with underworld don Chhota Rajan offers an example of a gangster being kept away from the city's police jurisdiction on security grounds.

He was arrested in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2015 and brought to India the following month. He was taken into the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Delhi and subsequently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with a fake passport case.

At the time, Rajan said he did not trust the Mumbai Police and alleged that some officers were associated with his rival Dawood Ibrahim.

The circumstances surrounding Rajan's custody were not identical to those governing Bishnoi's detention. His case nevertheless illustrates the security and jurisdictional complications that can arise when a high-profile gangster faces investigations in several states.

The investigation now hinges on the evidence connecting the suspects arrested in the Shroff case to the alleged network and the legal hurdles the Mumbai Police face in directly questioning Bishnois.

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