The United States has charged Lawrence Bishnoi, the imprisoned head of an Indian criminal gang, and his North American deputy with directing the 2023 murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
Background
Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, had campaigned for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India, and had been designated a terrorist by New Delhi.
A federal indictment unsealed in Los Angeles alleges Bishnoi and Satinderjeet Singh, also known as “Goldy Brar,” ordered the shooting of Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023.
The indictment says Bishnoi directed the operation from an Indian jail cell using smuggled cellphones and provided a co-conspirator with a photograph and multiple addresses of Nijjar’s to facilitate the killing.
Singh, a childhood friend of Bishnoi, allegedly directed the North American operations of the criminal group, known as the “Lawrence Bishnoi Organized Crime Group.”
The charges against Bishnoi and Singh were part of a broader investigation by U.S. and Canadian authorities that charged 37 defendants tied to three India-based organized crime groups with racketeering, extortion and drug trafficking, 24 of whom were arrested or already in custody, authorities said.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
