E-Commerce Platform Removes T-Shirts Featuring Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi After Backlash

Bhubaneswar: Following backlash on social media, popular e-commerce platform Meesho on Tuesday removed t-shirts, featuring the image of notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

“We have taken immediate action to deactivate the products. Meesho remains committed to providing a safe and trusted shopping platform for all our users,” the online shopping site said in a statement.

The t-shirts were on sale and priced between Rs 166 and Rs 177 on its website.

The issue garnered attention after filmmaker and social commentator Alishan Jafri highlight it as an attempt to normalise gangster culture in society. “This is just one example of India’s latest online radicalisation. Apart from Lawrence, you can also buy Durlabh Kashyap t-shirts. …..,” he posted on X.

He tagged Meesho and also mentioned about another platform Teeshopper, selling t-shirts with Bishnoi’s face and the word “gangster.” He then listed out the consequences of glorifying gangsters even as police and NIA are struggling to stop youths from joining gang crime in a series of tweets.

Check his post here

Bishnoi, currently lodged in Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati jail, has been booked under India’s anti-terror laws and is linked to over 70 criminal cases. He and his associates were involved in the 2016 jailbreak of a suspected Khalistani separatist. They also attacked a police facility in 2022 in the northern Punjab state with sophisticated weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades. His gang includes suspected militants and drug runners in Canada, the US and the United Arab Emirates.