Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles on Tuesday unveiled criminal charges against a high-profile leader of the Indian organized crime network known as “Bishnoi” and eight alleged associates, linking the group to the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist figure in Canada.
The indictment alleges that Lawrence Bishnoi and another defendant directed the assassination of “H.S.N.” — initials that appear to refer to Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down on June 18, 2023, near a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia.
Nijjar was a prominent political dissident who campaigned for an independent Sikh homeland in northern India called “Khalistan.” Indian authorities had previously labeled him a “terrorist” over his advocacy.
According to the indictment, two unidentified co-conspirators carried out the shooting, while Bishnoi later claimed responsibility for the killing.
“On November 25, 2023, defendant Bishnoi claimed responsibility on behalf of the ‘Lawrence Bishnoi Group’ for a shooting that occurred on November 24, 2023 in Vancouver, Canada at the residence of R.G., a prominent Indian actor and singer, in an online post to Facebook that warned, in Punjabi, ‘no one can save you from us,’” the indictment states.
Bishnoi has been in Indian custody since his arrest by authorities there in 2015, but prosecutors allege he continued to oversee an international criminal enterprise from behind bars.
“Using contraband cellphones and other voice over internet protocol devices smuggled into his jail cell, defendant Bishnoi personally directed political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortions, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and other crimes committed by members and associates of the Bishnoi OCG worldwide,” the indictment says.
He remains detained in India.
Bishnoi’s childhood friend, Satinderjit Singh Brar, allegedly directed the group’s North American operations and is also accused in the indictment of ordering the assassination.
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Shortly after Nijjar was murdered in 2023, another prominent Sikh separatist and close friend of Nijjar named Gurpatwant Singh Pannun was targeted for assassination in New York City, but the plot was thwarted by the FBI.
Both Canadian and American law enforcement authorities later alleged that the assassination of Nijjar and attempted assassination of Pannun were ordered at the behest of the Indian government itself.
In February, an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta pleaded guilty in a federal court in Manhattan to conspiring with former Indian government official Vikash Yadav to kill Pannun. Yadav remains at large.
“Justice cannot stop with the jailed gangsters, the triggermen, or the intermediaries,” Pannun said in a statement Tuesday. “The trail of evidence leads directly to the highest echelons of the Indian government.”
In the indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Bishnoi, Singh Brar and seven other defendants associated with Bishnoi’s group are facing a variety of charges in connection with their alleged criminal enterprise — including racketeering, extortion and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
Federal prosecutors also announced criminal charges in two other indictments related to organized crime by Indian groups, including the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria Organized Crime Group and the Dhanda Drug Trafficking Organization.
