Mumbai: The online sale of t-shirts with pictures jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi on popular retail fashion platform Meesho and Teeshopper has led to outrage with netizens condemning glamourising of criminals.
The listing sparked outrage among social media users criticizing Meesho for selling products that glorify criminals on its platform.
A social media user shared a post on X on November 4 that showed t-shirts with images of Bishnoi were up for grabs on Meesho for as low as INR 166. Some t-shirts depicted Bishnoi as “hero”, while others had the word “gangster” printed on them.
Filmmaker-journalist Alishan Jafri brought attention to this issue, describing it as an example of "India's latest online radicalisation".
He raised concerns on social media, noting that such merchandise was being sold not only on Meesho but also on other platforms like Flipkart, with prices as low as ₹168.
Jafri emphasised that selling apparel branded with Bishnoi’s likeness, including the term “gangster" on some items, contributes to the glorification of criminal figures and further highlighted that certain products seemed to target children, raising alarms about potential influence on young minds.
The issue quickly snowballed into a public backlash with some users suggesting that Meesho should be “de-platformed” for promoting controversial merchandise, some of which targeted children.
In an official statement, the company said that it has removed the product from its website and remains 'committed to providing a safe and trusted shopping'
“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 spokesperson said.
While the relevant keywords for the controversial merchandise on the E commerce platform not yield any results, suggesting that Meesho and Teeshoppers may have removed the items after backlash A Google search for the same products led to a Meesho page where the product was marked as "out of stock."
