From India to Canada: How Organised Crime Captured Kabaddi
Players and organisers have been threatened and murdered by rival Punjabi criminal groups in India, the UK and Canada, including the feared Lawrence Bishnoi gang. This is how it happened.
On the afternoon of December 15, 2025, Kanwar Digvijay Singh, better known as Rana Balachauria, was attending a circle-style kabaddi tournament in Mohali, a fast-growing satellite town near the city of Chandigarh in India’s Punjab region.
The tournament was staged on open ground at the edge of the city. The arena was temporary, fans gathered close to the rope marking the field, their phones out recording the matches.
Balachauria, a former kabaddi player turned organiser and promoter, was walking around the edge of the arena when two men approached him near the parking area, asking to take a selfie.
Seconds later, one of them drew a pistol and shot him at point-blank range. Balachauria collapsed and the shooters fled on a motorcycle, firing shots into the air. Videos of their escape were captured by spectators and were soon all over social media.
Social media posts claiming responsibility for the murder were attributed to the Bambiha gang, a Punjabi crime gang. The statements said that Balachauria was murdered for aligning with a rival criminal faction, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and warned kabbadi players and organisers not to do the same.
Punjabi police soon identified the shooters as Aditya Kapoor and Karan Pathak, and that the hit had been relayed by crime bosses living outside India. On 17 January 2026, Punjab Police tracked down Pathak near a cricket stadium in Chandigarh. According to official police accounts, Pathak opened fire and was killed in the ensuing shootout.
But while Balachauria and Pathak were both killed in Punjab, they were merely the latest victims of a brutal killing spree around kabbadi.
Long played informally at village level, kabbadi has evolved in the last decade into a circuit of competing high-profile tournaments offering cash prizes.
Criminal outfits like the Bambiha and Bishnoi gangs view these as lucrative choke points around sponsorship, player access and protection.
Their violent takeover of the sport spans three continents.
