Canadian allegations lift Indian gangster to new heights of notoriety

Upsurge in interest comes even though he has been incarcerated for the past 10 years

- Nirmala Ganapathy

NEW DELHI - Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi may be notorious, but has his appeal.

Unfortunately for some Indian online marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, hawking gangster-themed products with his image for as little as 200 rupees (S$3.20) apiece has landed them in hot water.

Maharashtra cyber police said on Nov 7 that they had registered a case against sellers, along with online marketplaces such as Flipkart and Etsy, for selling T-shirts with pictures of Bishnoi, as well as gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who is India's most-wanted criminal.

The police say the merchandise glamorises a life of crime in young and impressionable minds.

"Such products, which idolise criminal figures, pose a significant risk to society by promoting a distorted image that could influence young minds negatively," the Maharashtra cyber department said in a media release on Nov 7.

"This kind of idolisation of criminal elements not only erodes societal values but also trivialises the serious crimes associated with those individuals."

Flipkart and Etsy did not respond to a request for comment.

The upsurge in interest comes even though Bishnoi has been incarcerated for the past 10 years. He was catapulted to international infamy in mid-October when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian police named his criminal syndicate as the hired gun in an alleged Indian government plot to intimidate and kill Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.

Bishnoi's criminal syndicate has also been linked to high-profile cases in India, including repeated death threats against Bollywood star Salman Khan and the October killing of an Indian politician in Mumbai.

Those who have been tracking the 31-year-old gangster, who is currently serving time in the western state of Gujarat for a drug-smuggling offence, said the allegations by Canada have elevated him to new heights of notoriety.