LAWRENCE IN SABARMATI JAIL, YET MURDER STRIKES IN PUNJAB

From Salman Khan to Sanjay Verma: How Lawrence Bishnot’s Shadow Has Plunged Punjab and the Nation into Fear

- TARUNI GANDHI

Stooping down from celebrities to local businessmen, Lawrence Bishnoi is spreading terror not only in Punjab but across the country. From threatening Bollywood star Salman Khan, orchestrating the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, targeting political figure Baba Siddique, to now gunning down a humble businessman in Abohar, the gangster's reach shows no bounds, and his impunity grows stronger from behind bars. But the horror is no longer confined to headlines. It now burns in the cries of ordinary families.

A grieving brother's cry turns into a national question. "Why should a man who pays taxes, who gives jobs to thousands, be gunned down like this, on the road, in daylight?" "Why are these monsters being kept safe in jails? Why is the government sheltering them? What do they expect them to do for the country? Why aren't they being finished?"

These were not political slogans. These were the howling cries of elder brother Jagat Verma, collapsing in grief beside the funeral pyre of Sanjay Verma, a respected cloth merchant from Abohar. His body still smouldering, Jagat's cries rang out through the crowd gathered at Shivpuri cremation ground, breaking the silence of mourning and reflecting the collective rage of a state under siege.

Daylight murder sparks panic across Abohar. Sanjay Verma was more than a trader; he was an employer, a known philanthropist, and an honest man. And yet, on July 7, he was shot dead in broad daylight, just steps from his shop. And the gangsters who ordered it? Still breathing, still issuing threats, from jail.