US charges Indian criminal gang leader with organising murder of Canadian Sikh activist

US and Canadian authorities say they have “dismantled” the leadership of a notorious Indian criminal group, charging dozens of operatives who have “inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe”, including a high-profile murder in Canada that strained diplomatic relations between Canada and India.

At a press conference on Tuesday, members of the FBI and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said as part of Operation Hard Ball – a multiyear federal investigation into murder-for-hire plots, shootings, extortion and drug trafficking – they had charged 37 people, some of whom were already in custody. Authorities are still searching for seven fugitives in the US, two in India and one in Europe.

The highest profile indictment was of Lawrence Bishnoi, the imprisoned head of an Indian criminal gang, who was charged with orchestrating the assassination of a well-known Sikh campaigner from behind the bars of a Delhi prison cell.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was fatally shot in 2023 outside a temple in Canada where he served as president. Police said they had also charged his childhood friend, Satinderjeet Singh, for his role in the killing. Singh, who also goes by the name Goldy Brar, is now a fugitive in the US.

Read more: The Guardian (UK)