US authorities have indicated they will seek the extradition of several individuals from India linked to organised crime networks, after unsealing indictments on Tuesday against members of three -linked gangs as part of a coordinated action that saw 37 people charged.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced a US $50,000 reward for information leading to the “arrest and extradition” of Goldy Brar, a key lieutenant of jailed gangster . Both men were named as having ordered the 2023 assassination of pro-Khalistan figure in Canada. The indictments also identified Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Ravinder Singh Dhanda on similar charges.
The indictment unsealed on Tuesday does not explicitly call for Bishnoi’s own extradition. But US authorities said they want India’s already-imprisoned gang leaders brought into American custody to curtail their activities, alleging in the indictment that Bishnoi coordinated his gang’s expansion into new countries from his jail cell using smuggled phones and voice-over-internet-protocol devices.
“Some of these guys are already in jail cells in India, so obviously that’s not enough to restrain their activities. When they come to a federal penitentiary here in the United States, I guarantee you, he won’t be extorting any more victims once he’s in our custody for, hopefully, a very long time,” first assistant United States attorney Bill Essayli said at a press conference on Tuesday. He also said federal authorities expect the two men — Bishnoi and Bhagwanpuria — held in India jails to be extradited to the US.
Canada’s federal police force, separately, indicated it expects Washington to pursue Bishnoi’s extradition.
Lisa Moreland, the deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) that worked with US authorities through the investigations, said in a television interview on CBC News that America will seek Bishnoi’s extradition to face charges.
Essayli also said they would seek the extradition of Gurinderjit Singh, a serving police official in Punjab, who allegedly demanded roughly US $400,000 from a family based in Los Angeles. The indictment alleges Singh worked with members of the Bhagwanpuria gang to threaten families with false murder charges unless payment was made, and that he had already framed individuals on false charges in the killing of a person identified in the indictment only as “B.S” — a likely reference to Aam Aadmi Party’s Balvinder Singh Satkartar, who was shot and killed in Punjab’s Miani village by assailants in January this year.
Where is Lawrence Bishnoi?
Bishnoi’s brother Anmol was deported from the US in November after having gone underground sometime in 2022.
The younger Bishnoi, at present in a prison in Delhi, was sent back to India on a special flight after he was caught in Sacramento for illegally entering the US where he made a failed asylum attempt.
India’s ministry of external affairs has not yet commented on the US statements.
India-US extradition treaty
An extradition request would require Washington to formally approach New Delhi, followed by a review process and a ruling by an Indian court.
India and the US signed an extradition treaty in 1997, which came into force in 1999.
It was last invoked in 2025, when the US extradited Canadian businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana to India to stand trial over his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
