In its indictment of Lawrence Bishnoi, the US Department of Justice has only reaffirmed the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) assertion in its August 2022 FIR that despite being lodged in prison, the gangster had been carrying out criminal activities.The US indictment order states that Bishnoi, in association with his accomplices, carried out political killings and extortions through VoIP (Voice-Over Internet Protocol) devices and encrypted messaging services from prison.The FIR was lodged by the NIA against nine accused, including Bishnoi, his brother Anmol Bishnoi, Kala Jathedi and Goldy Brar, under the stringent UAPA for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to carry out terrorist activities in Delhi and other parts of the country. “Some of these gangsters are lodged in jails and are carrying out criminal activities from there. Others are absconding and operating from different parts of the world, including India, Canada, Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia and the UAE,” the anti-terror agency had said.The US Department of Justice said that “using contraband cellphones and other voice-over internet devices smuggled into his jail cell, Bishnoi personally directed his associates to commit political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortions, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling and other crimes worldwide”.It said Bishnoi, Brar, Rohit Godara and other defendants attempted to extort victims in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks in December 2025 and January 2026, demanding a payment of $5 million.Bishnoi has been in jail since 2017 after being arrested for his alleged role in ordering murders and operating extortion rackets across states. In 2021, he was brought to Delhi’s Tihar Jail in connection with a case under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. He has been lodged in Gujarat’s Sabarmati jail since 2023, where he is learnt to have been placed under isolation. However, the US allegation that he used contraband cellphones and VoIP devices as well as WhatsApp while being in jail has raises questions about how he has been accessing these modes of communication.