Indian gang leader charged with ordering assassination of Canadian Sikh activist

The U.S. Justice Department says 24 suspects around the world, three of them in Canada, have been arrested in connection with offences by India-based organized crime groups, including the murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

Lawrence Bishnoi, a gangster who is in prison in India, and his alleged lieutenant Satinderjeet Singh, also known as Goldy Brar, are charged with ordering Nijjar’s June 2023 assassination outside a Surrey, B.C., gurdwara.

The indictment against a total of 37 suspects says such high-profile crimes were used to terrorize and extort Indian community members.

It says that in November 2023 Bishnoi claimed responsibility for a separate shooting that occurred at the Vancouver home of a prominent Indian actor and singer, warning in Punjabi in a Facebook post that “no one can save you from us.”

The department said in a news release on Tuesday that as part of “Operation Hard Ball” law enforcement had seized approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine and a dozen firearms.

It said the Bishnoi gang funded its activities through drug trafficking, and in November 2024, Bishnoi and Brar oversaw the transportation of 49 kilograms of cocaine that was intercepted in California and was intended to be sent to Canada.

Eleven people were meanwhile charged in relation to an operation that allegedly smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine each week from the U.S. into Canada.

Ravinder Singh Dhanda, of Vancouver, Jaskarn Baghr of Surrey, B.C., and Gurtej Singh Smagh, of Creston, B.C., plus eight other suspects, face eight charges over that alleged operation.

The U.S. Justice Department said 17 members of a third crime group, operated by another imprisoned gangster in India, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, were also charged.

Bishnoi gang members have claimed responsibility for the killing of Brampton businessman Harjeet Singh Dhadda, who was gunned down in a Mississauga parking lot on May 14. The gang has also taken credit for the murder of Brampton rapper Sidhu Moose Wala.

Nijjar helped organize a Khalistan referendum vote in Brampton before he was murdered – a movement which looks for the state of Punjab to break away from India and become a Sikh- run state.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme told a news conference in Los Angeles that the investigation had “dismantled the leadership of three criminal organizations that inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe.”

“Lawrence Bishnoi, Ravinder Dhanda, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, (are) some of the most cruel and wide-reaching criminals whose crimes range from kidnapping to extortion, to murder, to shootings, to arson, to drug trafficking, and many others,” he said.

“These groups are known to prey on the less fortunate to carry out the criminal activities.”

In addition to those arrested or who are already behind bars, police around the world are looking for 10 fugitives, seven in the United States, two in India, and one in Europe.

Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said that the operation “strikes at the heart of three brutal transnational organizations that have terrorized families, exploited communities, and stolen lives through ruthless acts of violence in the U.S. and abroad.”

First assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said that law enforcement in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia “are determined to target and dismantle these criminal organizations wherever they operate.”

“There is no safe harbour for these thugs,” he added.

In May 2024, four Indian nationals were charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to Nijjar’s killing, which triggered a diplomatic uproar.

The case is now before the B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.

Nijjar was a supporter of an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan, and his followers have maintained that the Indian government was involved in the death.

In September 2023, then prime minister Justin Trudeau made the stunning announcement in the House of Commons that there was credible intelligence linking India’s government to the killing, and the government last year designated the Bishnoi group as a terrorist entity.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Bishnoi “projected an image of himself as a ‘patriot,’ ‘nationalist,’ and deeply religious individual through social media posts and interviews with news organizations and used this public image to recruit members.”

Bishnoi’s indictment identifies Nijjar by the initials H. S. N, while also describing the exact date of his killing and the known circumstances.

The Canadian Press