FB easy platform for cyber war of gangsters

Amit Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 12

Social media, especially Facebook, has turned out to be a platform for the so-called gangsters to issue threats to their rivals and claim responsibility for killings carried out by them.

A day after Gurlal Brar was murdered, a Facebook post was uploaded from one of the profiles of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi that says: ‘It is start of new war”. A picture of Gurala with Bishnoi was also shared with the post.

There are multiple social media accounts of student leader-turned-gangster Bishnoi which are updated on a regular basis.

For three recent murders reported in Chandigarh, gangsters or their groups claimed the responsibility through Facebook posts, barely a few hours after the killings.

In September last year, Rajveer Singh, alias Sonu Shah, was shot dead by four assailants inside his office at Burail village, Sector 45. The assailants had pumped 10 bullets into Shah’s body. His two colleagues, who were present at his office at that time, had also suffered bullet injuries. A day later, a post was updated on a Lawrence Bishnoi’s Facebook profile claiming the responsibility for the murder.

Later when Bishnoi was brought by the Chandigarh police on production warrant, he revealed that the Facebook post claiming responsibility for Sonu Shah’s murder was posted by one of his henchmen.

In March this year, Surjit Singh, a bouncer-turned-financier, was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne persons near his house in Sector 38 (West). He was returning home in his car when the assailants opened fire at him.

Within a few hours after the murder, an unidentified person updated a post on the Facebook page of gangster Davinder Bambiha, stating that Lucky has avenged the killing of Amit Sharma who was shot dead at Saketri, Panchkula in 2017.

Gangster Bambiha was killed in a police encounter at Gill Kala, near Rampura, Punjab, in 2016. However, Facebook profiles with his names and photos are updated frequently.

Similarly, two Facebook profiles on Bambiha’s name were updated a few hours after 26-year-old Gurlal Brar, an acquaintance of Lawrence Bishnoi, was shot dead outside City Emporium Mall in Industrial Area, Phase I.

The posts state Lucky had avenged the murder of Lavi Deora. Lavi was killed at Kotkapura, Faridkot, allegedly by the Bishnoi gang.

Police sources said many gangsters had been operating mobile phones from within jails of Punjab and Rajasthan. “They have been ordering killings from inside the jails,” said a policeman.