Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announce charges against Indian organized criminal group “Bishnoi”

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles on Tuesday announced criminal charges against the prominent leader and eight associates of the Indian organized criminal group known as “Bishnoi,” tying them to the 2023 assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada.

The indictment accuses Lawrence Bishnoi and another defendant of ordering the killing of “H.S.N.” — the apparent initials for Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down on June 18, 2023, near a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. 

Nijjar was a well-known political dissident who advocated for the creation of a Sikh homeland in northern India that would be known as “Khalistan.” India previously designated him a “terrorist” in connection with those advocacy efforts.

The indictment alleges that two other unnamed co-conspirators pulled the trigger that day, but that Bishnoi took responsibility for the act.

“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 says.

Bishnoi was arrested by Indian authorities in 2015. Despite this, the indictment says he continued to run a global crime syndicate.

“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 in custody 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.

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.

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.