BHOPAL: An alleged member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, Rajpal Singh Chandrawat, surrendered before the Madhya Pradesh on Thursday in connection with an extortion case carried out in the name of key gang operative Harry Boxer.
Chandrawat, a who resides in Nagda, surrendered a month after an extortion case was registered at Khargone district’s Kasrawad police station, by a cotton businessman Dilip Rathore.
Rathore had reported a firing outside his house by unidentified men while he was in Indore with family. He further informed the police that he had received a Rs 10 crore extortion threat via WhatsApp call and voice notes in the name of Harry Boxer.
Boxer, a key operative of the inter-state gang is believed to be operating from abroad was detained by authorities in California in February, following extortion threats in his name to multiple Bollywood personalities.
Before surrendering at the local police station on Thursday, Rajpal told journalists that he was forced to surrender, following harassment of his family members by the police in connection with the case lodged at Khargone police station.
“I’m associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and the case in which I’ve surrendered is lodged at Khargone’s Kasrawad police station. Our gang came to know that the businessman Dilip Rathore was exploiting farmers and teenage-young girls,” Rajpal told journalists ahead of his surrender before the local police.
“First, I sent my men to his place, but they couldn’t succeed, later Harry Boxer Bhai, who like Lawrence Bishnoi Bhai, is like my elder brother, got the job done.”
“I’ve also assisted the police and administration in the past, there is no problem. I’ve cooperated in the past during interrogation by the Delhi, Punjab and Maharashtra police as well as the National Investigation Agency (NIA),” he said.
While Rajpal claimed that the police came to know about him and the gang through one of his aides Kuldip Singh, he alleged that another key aide Yogesh Bhati too was in Kasrawad police’s custody. However, sources in MP Police, who are probing the case, denied Bhati’s detention.
“I was forced to surrender due to harassment of family members by police. We treat police station’s as smashan (cremation grounds) and don’t allow our women there, but the police took women from my family there, after which I had no option left, but to surrender,” said Rajpal.
While Rajpal surrendered in last month’s extortion case before police in native Ujjain district, three other men have already been arrested in the same case last month by Kasrawad police.
Arrested in 2023 by Delhi Police’s special cell in a case of weapon smuggling, Rajpal is believed to have then come in contact with Lawrence Bishnoi and other gang members inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
Since then, multiple teams of police from various states as well as the NIA have raided and searched his premises in Nagda (Madhya Pradesh) in connection with various high-profile murder cases involving the Bishnoi gang, including April 2022 killing of builder Sanjay Biyani in Nanded (Maharashtra), Punjabi singer-rapper Siddhu Moosewala murder case in 2022 and 2024 killing of ex-Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique.