Three accused linked to Bishnoi gang remanded to police custody till May 28 for firing at furniture mall in Ravet

Pune: Investigations by the Pimpri Chinchwad police have revealed that alleged members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang — Arzoo Bishnoi, Shubham Lonkar and Kuldeep alias Kashish — allegedly hatched a plot to extort Rs 2 crore from the owners of a furniture mall in Ravet.

Police said the gang hired three men from Haryana to threaten the owners by opening fire at the establishment. The trio was allegedly promised Rs 2.5 lakh, of which Rs 50,000 was paid in advance.

On the night of May 15, two of the accused allegedly fired six rounds at the mall before escaping. A Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch team led by assistant inspector Harish Mane later nabbed the three accused — Parveen Ram Niswas (23) from Jhajjar, Pankaj Kuldeep Rathi (21) from Rohtak, and Sagar Ajay Pal (21) from Sonipat — from a lodge in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. Police said Niswas and Rathi were the ones who opened fire at the mall.

The trio was produced before a court on Thursday and remanded to police custody till May 28.

Joint commissioner of police Shashikant Mahavarkar of the Pimpri Chinchwad police said that after the firing incident, teams from the crime branch and Ravet police were deployed to trace the accused. Investigators examined footage from more than 400 CCTV cameras and tracked the motorcycle used by the men.

“Ravet police then started searching lodges in the area where the motorcycle was last seen. They found Aadhaar card details and other information,” Mahavarkar said.

He added that since the traced address was in Haryana, Mane and his team were sent there, while other teams were dispatched to different states. “With the help of technical analysis, Mane confirmed that the accused were in Haridwar. They were taken into custody from a lodge there,” he said.

Mahavarkar said during questioning, the accused admitted to firing at the mall. They allegedly revealed that they had been contacted by Bishnoi gang members through a mobile messaging app and were given a contract to carry out the firing.

“Arzoo Bishnoi’s aides provided them with two pistols and 23 cartridges. They were trained in firing in Sonipat in Haryana before reaching Pune by bus,” he said.

Mahavarkar added that the accused were also provided with a motorcycle in Pune. They stayed at a lodge and conducted a recce before executing the crime.

The key conspirator, Kuldeep alias Kashish, is one of the suspects in the murder case of singer Sidhu Moose Wala, while Shubham Lonkar is the main accused in the firing outside the house of Bollywood director Rohit Shetty. He was also questioned in connection with the firing outside the residence of Bollywood actor Salman Khan in April 2024.

“The Lawrence Bishnoi gang had earlier threatened a person for ransom in Pimpri and a furniture owner in Dighi. Separate cases have been registered against them at the Sant Tukaramnagar and Dighi police stations,” the joint commissioner said.