New Delhi: “They didn’t pay us the whole amount that was agreed upon” read the text in Punjabi sent on 25 May. The sender was a Punjab Police officer, and the recipient, a Punjab resident who was being threatened that he would be framed in a murder case.
The man’s US-based family had received an extortion threat from one Gurlal Singh. But they had refused to pay the full amount.
Gurlal Singh is a US-based member of a syndicate run by jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, who was also named in the high-profile murder of Punjabi artist Sidhu Moosewala.
The text was intercepted and reproduced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the indictment of Gurinderjit Singh Nagra, a Station House Officer (SHO) in Hoshiarpur district, who was the sender. Nagra is among 37 people of Indian origin whose extradition the US now seeks to try them under various charges. Also on the list are Bhagwanpuria, jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and fugitive designated terrorist Goldy Brar.
According to the FBI, the alleged conspiracy to extort money from the US-based family members of three people in Punjab was brewing behind the scenes even while the state police was probing a murder case. It started with Gurlal sending Nagra details of the three people he wanted to target, said the FBI.
It added that Nagra threatened to frame these three in the murder case of an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member, codenamed “BS” by the FBI, in Hoshiarpur’s Miani village. He was shot dead at his shop in January. Nagra was SHO at the Tanda police station in the district, and was supervising officer in the Balwinder Singh murder case.
In the wake of the FBI charges against Nagra, Jalandhar Range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Naveen Singla has now instituted a fact-finding inquiry to be carried out by an IPS officer posted outside the district. Nagra, meanwhile, has been withdrawn from active police duty and attached to the police line.
A Punjab police officer told ThePrint, “The course of action against him will be decided based on the report of the fact-finding inquiry. The inquiry has been mandated to probe all allegations as well as identifying the victims cited by the FBI. The fact-finding team has been asked to submit a report at the earliest.”
In the indictment unsealed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) Tuesday, US authorities have called the Nagra case an example of collusion between “corrupt” police officers and gangsters to expand their criminal network and use government servants for extortion schemes.
Originally from Bhagwanpur village of Gurdaspur, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria has more than 100 cases against him, ranging from drug trade, extortion, attempt to murder and murder, including the Sidhu Moosewala case. He has been termed a close aide of Lawrence Bishnoi and Satinder Singh alias Goldy Brar.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had last year shifted him to Assam’s Silchar jail under Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act.
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Gangster-police collusion
In a 44-page-long indictment (chargesheet) unsealed Tuesday, the FBI explained the sequence of events related to the Balwinder Singh murder case and communication between US-based Gurlal Singh, his potential targets and the role of Nagra.
Singh was murdered by bike-borne assailants on the afternoon of 15 January.
On the same day, the FBI revealed, Gurlal Singh and other syndicate members, such as Sahibdeep Singh and Gurdev Singh, decided to take responsibility for the killing on Instagram. As part of their plan, Gurdev took responsibility on behalf of all three.
Days later, the Hoshiarpur police named a trio of 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.
On 13 April, Gurlal sent SHO Nagra the details of a man he intended to frame in this murder case in bid to extract money, the FBI alleged. The same day, Nagra allegedly approached the target and threatened his father, and two other targets, asking them to pay the amount sought by Gurlal.
Asked why a Punjab Police officer featured in its indictment, the First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said that SHO Nagra had demanded USD 400,000 from a Los Angeles-based family in exchange for not framing their kin in India in a murder case (of AAP member Balwinder Singh).
Nagra, according to FBI findings, took the matter a step ahead, addressing a press conference on 24 May stating that three more accused had been identified and would soon be “formally nominated” as accused in the Balwinder Singh murder case.
The trio was the same who he attempted to extort on behalf of Bhagwanpuria’s syndicate, the FBI alleged.
The following day, Nagra told the three victims that he had announced them as suspects because they hadn’t paid the extortion money.
The same day, he even told one of them that two names would be removed from the list of suspects once their full payments are received, the FBI further alleged.
The FBI has charged Nagra for carrying out extortion for Bhagwanpuria’s gang by threatening force, violence and fear to victims, including framing them in a murder case.
Responding to the queries about whether Nagra was in custody in India, Attorney Bill Essayli said that he would soon be.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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