New Delhi: The Punjab police suspect a suspended police officer indicted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) extorted close to Rs 50 lakh from a US-based couple in exchange for not implicating their son and daughter, ThePrint has learnt.
The police had arrested Gurinderjit Singh Nagra, former Station House Officer (SHO) at Tanda police station in Hoshiarpur district, a week after he was indicted by the FBI in a case related to the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang.
In July, the FBI had indicted Nagra in its case against the Bhagwanpuria gang, alleging that he had sent a text to a man from Punjab based in the US, threatening him to implicate him and his children in the case.
Nagra, the FBI alleged, was working in collusion with a US-based operative of the Bhagwanpuria gang, Gurlal Singh. Nagra’s name had cropped up during a probe against organised crime gangs, including of jailed gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria as well as fugitive designated terrorist Satinder Singh alias Goldy Brar in the US, Canada, and European countries in July. US authorities have accused 37 people, including Nagra.
Sources, however, said that only a Rs 16 lakh-money trail has been identified so far, and a probe to establish the money trail for the remaining amount is still underway. They added that the Los Angeles-based family extorted by Nagra as well as the cash courier used by the family have been identified in the probe.
“Nagra had threatened Charanjit Singh, a retired Assistant Sub-Inspector settled in Los Angeles with his family, comprising his wife and two children. He tapped his long-time aide for the transfer of funds to Nagra,” a police officer aware of the probe said.
Charanjit Singh’s aide revealed during the probe that he received funds in two tranches—Rs 16 lakh first and around Rs 34 lakh in the second tranche, the officer added.
“The first part of the funds transfer has been traced, and the statement of the person who facilitated the transfer has been recorded.” However, the officer said that the second route for funds transfer has not yet been ascertained and is under review.
Rivalry & revenge
The entire genesis of the case against Nagra lies in the murder of Balwinder Singh in Miani village of Hoshiarpur district in January. Shortly after the murder, Gurdev Singh from the Gurlal Singh syndicate took responsibility for the killing on Instagram.
Dubbed a close aide of Bhagwanpuria, Gurlal has been charged by the FBI alongside Bhagwanpuria on the grounds of running a crime syndicate, selling illegal weapons, narcotics and running extortion racket from US territory.
Days later, the Hoshiarpur police named Tejinder Pal Singh alias Channi, Gurman Singh and Swaraj Singh as accused, citing secret information. They went on to arrest five accused, including Lovepreet Kaur, the wife of absconding accused Channi.
Nagra, in his capacity as the Tanda SHO, was overseeing the probe into the case, and found that Charanjit Singh had hatched the plan to kill Balwinder over his daughter’s matrimonial dispute. Charanjit Singh had taken voluntary retirement from the service and settled with his family in the US in 2023.
“Charanjit’s daughter was married to Balwinder’s son in December 2023, and the couple lived for some time in Canada before they returned to Hoshiarpur after some dispute. Charanjit Singh also arrived and his daughter sought divorce, which Balwinder was refusing,” another officer said. “This led to further confrontation, and Charanjit’s daughter levied some personal allegations which allegedly went on to hurt Balwinder’s ego.”
Balwinder allegedly sought revenge, and when Charanjit was looking to remarry his daughter, he gave very negative feedback.
“These developments took place in November-December and Charanjit orchestrated the killing in January to settle the score,” the officer said.
Nagra implicated Charanjit in the case, allegedly threatening to implicate his son and daughter too in the same case if money was not handed out.
As part of the deal, the officer said that Charanjit tapped his longtime friend and sent him the funds. “The money amounting to Rs 16 lakh was handed over to a public servant, who passed on the funds to Nagra. The cash courier does not seem to understand the purpose of the fund transfer,” the officer said.
Out of Rs 16 lakh he allegedly received from Charanjit, Nagra told the investigators that he allegedly dumped Rs 15 lakh into a canal in Hoshiarpur after news of his indictment broke in the media.
The sources further said that Charanjit’s friend revealed that he received approximately Rs 34 lakh from his friend, which he transferred to another middleman.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)