India, Oct. 19 -- Sometime in 2020, when the Delhi Police's Special Cell prepared a dossier on Lawrence Bishnoi after questioning him, one section on his future plans recorded that he wanted to "leave the crime world and live peacefully".

Bishnoi then spoke about how he wanted to do something good in sports because he had always been interested in them. He had described in detail how, in the early 2000s, he was once a budding athlete in school, even practised the 1500m race for the state open Athletic championship around 2008, and practised regularly at the Punjab University grounds.

In hindsight, six years later, police officers who interrogated him believe Bishnoi was merely misleading them. He had no intention of leaving the criminal...