New Delhi: India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, has welcomed the multinational crackdown on criminal syndicates run by India-based gangsters. Patnaik said Wednesday that arrests made in the US validated New Delhi’s long-standing contention that North American governments had been too slow in confronting transnational gangs operating across their borders.
“For a long time, there was a feeling in India that the countries in North America have been turning a blind eye,” he said in a statement to Canada’s Globe and Mail, adding, “But the very fact that now you’re taking action and the Americans are taking action is good news.”
Asked about a possible US extradition request for jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, Ambassador Patnaik said India will consider any formal request but the ultimate decision will rest with Indian courts.
Bishnoi is currently lodged at the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat.
Patnaik’s remarks came after US authorities Wednesday unsealed three federal indictments charging 37 defendants linked to criminal syndicates led by Lawrence Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Ravinder Singh Dhanda.
Prosecutors described the groups as transnational enterprises involved in racketeering, extortion, drug trafficking, kidnappings and targeted killings across North America and beyond.
The indictments mark the most significant coordinated law enforcement action yet against criminal networks that Indian officials have long argued pose a threat not only within India but also to the Indian diaspora
Among the most consequential allegations is a charge that Bishnoi and his North American counterpart, Satinderjeet Singh alias Goldy Brar, ordered the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. A Canadian Sikh separatist, Nijjar was shot outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, on 18 June, 2023.
The allegation appears in the recently unsealed Federal indictment filed in a US court on 1 July, the first formal allegation approved by a US Federal grand jury.
At a news conference in Los Angeles announcing the results of what they labelled “Operation Hard Ball”, a multi-year investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies, US officials said they were seeking the extradition of Bishnoi and several co-defendants.
Prosecutors further alleged Bishnoi continued running his global criminal enterprise from prison using contraband cellphones and internet-based communication.
According to the US Justice Department, Bishnoi’s syndicate orchestrated political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortion schemes, kidnappings, narcotics trafficking and human smuggling across multiple continents.
Prosecutors also alleged that the network operated through associates in the United States, Canada, Europe and elsewhere.
In all, prosecutors charged 37 defendants across three indictments. Authorities arrested 13 suspects in the US, including 11 in California, one in Indiana and one in Georgia. Three defendants were arrested in Canada, one in Spain and seven were already in custody.
The filing, however, does not address the broader allegation by former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2023 that agents of the Indian government were involved in Nijjar’s killing.
India has consistently denied those accusations, instead arguing that Canada had allowed extremist organisations and organised crime networks to operate with insufficient scrutiny.
The diplomatic dispute over Nijjar’s death triggered one of the sharpest ruptures in India-Canada relations in decades. Ties have shown signs of recovery in recent months following the election of Prime Minister Mark Carney in April 2025.
Beyond the Nijjar case, prosecutors accused members of the Bishnoi syndicate of racketeering conspiracy, attempted extortion under the Hobbs Act and conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine.
The DoJ also announced charges against the groups led by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Ravinder Singh Dhanda, describing both as transnational criminal syndicates with networks spanning the United States, Canada, Britain, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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