Gorakhpur. The Special Task Force (STF) has widened its investigation into an alleged weapons‑smuggling syndicate purportedly connected to Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar and Rohit Godara. The enquiry now implicates a network of local facilitators in Gorakhpur, bringing the total number of accused to thirty‑one.
Among those named are a close aide of a regional politician and the son of a Uttar Pradesh police sub‑inspector. Investigators are currently analysing the mobile devices, social‑media footprints and address books of the detainees to map out the wider conspiracy.
Verification of local links
Police are cross‑checking the identities of the Gorakhpur contacts uncovered during the probe. The aim is to ascertain the substance of their conversations with the primary suspects and to determine whether they played any role in moving arms into the Purvanchal belt. In a related development, the brother of a student leader was briefly detained for questioning before being released.
Political and police connections
One of the accused is reported to be an associate of a legislator from the Sahjanwa area, while another’s father serves as a sub‑inspector in the state police. Following the filing of the case at Cantt Police Station, STF teams have launched a series of raids to locate the remaining culprits, simultaneously combing through phone numbers and online activity linked to the arrested individuals.
Identifying distributors
The STF is now focused on pinpointing the local actors believed to have facilitated the distribution of firearms that were allegedly brought into Gorakhpur and the wider Purvanchal region from other states. Extracts of contact lists recovered from seized mobiles are being matched against known networks.
Five suspects taken into custody
During the night of Monday, STF operatives apprehended Shreyansh Yadav (alias Bablu), Ajit Yadav, Abhishek Gaud (alias Bheli), Abhishek Prajapati (alias Abhi) and Rahul Gupta near Vindhyavasini Park. Subsequent interrogations revealed twenty‑six additional names, raising the total count of alleged participants to thirty‑one. While five have been detained, the remaining twenty‑six are still at large.
More than ten STF teams are conducting coordinated raids across Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, as well as in the Gorakhpur, Kushinagar and Maharajganj districts, in an effort to capture the fugitives. Shashank Pandey, a resident of Bihar, has emerged as a pivotal figure in the investigation.
Further leads
The probe also uncovered the identities of Suraj Yadav, a PAC employee from Bansgaon, and his associate Pramod Yadav. According to STF officials, the duo allegedly procured weapons from the same supply chain as part of a plot to eliminate a young man. Authorities are now searching for the firearms and tracing the contacts linked to them. Both men are believed to be in hiding after learning of the police operation.
STF officers have reached out to Shashank Pandey’s ancestral village in a bid to locate him. Investigators are also scrutinising the network of contacts he established while operating out of Gorakhpur, which earlier inquiries had tied to a weapons‑smuggling outfit allegedly linked to the Bishnoi gang.
