The United States has formally indicted jailed Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his North America regional chief, Satinderjit Singh, alias “Goldy Brar,” over the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. The 2023 killing had created unprecedented tension in diplomatic relations between Canada and India.
The indictment, unsealed in a federal court in Los Angeles, states that Bishnoi and Goldy Brar ordered the shooting death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023.
US prosecutors allege Lawrence Bishnoi directed the operation using a smuggled mobile phone from an Indian prison. He allegedly provided an associate with Nijjar’s photograph and multiple addresses to facilitate the killing. Meanwhile, Bishnoi’s childhood friend Goldy Brar allegedly ran their criminal network’s operations in North America, known as the “Lawrence Bishnoi Organized Crime Group.”
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was associated with the movement to establish an independent Sikh state of “Khalistan” in India. New Delhi had previously declared him a “terrorist.”
Following Nijjar’s assassination in 2023, then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged there was “credible evidence” of direct involvement by agents of the Indian government in the killing. New Delhi rejected Trudeau’s allegation as “absurd.”
However, the recent US indictment against Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar makes no mention of any involvement by the Indian government.
At a press conference in Los Angeles, US First Assistant Attorney Bill Essayli and other officials made no allegation of the Indian government’s involvement in or prior knowledge of the assassination.
Officials said the indictment against Bishnoi and Brar is part of a larger joint investigation by US and Canadian authorities. That investigation has brought charges of extortion, drug trafficking and smuggling against 37 defendants linked to three India-based crime syndicates, of whom 24 have already been arrested or are in custody.
Earlier, in May 2024, Canadian police arrested four Indian nationals on charges of involvement in Nijjar’s assassination and said they were investigating any connection between them and the Indian government. However, the US indictment does not directly charge those shooters, instead listing them only as “co-conspirators.”
The severe deterioration in relations between Ottawa and New Delhi over Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s death has begun to normalize somewhat under current Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Carney made his first official visit to India last February and began trade agreement talks between the two countries, which are hoped to conclude by November this year.
However, several Sikh organizations in Canada have criticized the current Canadian government’s conciliatory and soft stance. They allege the Ottawa administration is failing to properly hold India accountable and to protect Canadian Sikhs from foreign interference and repression.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report