The 2023 murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, which caused tensions between Ottawa and New Delhi, was allegedly orchestrated by Lawrence Bishnoi, the imprisoned leader of an Indian criminal gang, and his North American deputy.
According to a federal indictment unsealed in Los Angeles, Bishnoi and Satinderjeet Singh, popularly known as "Goldy Brar," ordered Nijjar's shooting on June 18, 2023, outside a Sikh temple in the Surrey, British Columbia, neighborhood of Vancouver.
According to the indictment, Bishnoi used smuggled telephones to oversee the plot from an Indian jail cell and gave a co-conspirator Nijjar's picture and many addresses to help with the murder. According to reports, Singh, a childhood friend of Bishnoi, oversaw the criminal organization known as the "Lawrence Bishnoi Organized Crime Group" in North America.
When then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated months later that Canadian police were "actively pursuing credible allegations" connecting Indian government operatives to Nijjar's death, it caused a diplomatic crisis. The claim was dismissed as ludicrous by New Delhi.
There is no claim that the Indian government was involved in the murder in the US indictment against Bishnoi and Singh.
Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was labeled a terrorist by New Delhi after he advocated for the establishment of Khalistan, an autonomous Sikh country split off from India.
At a news briefing in Los Angeles, neither First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli nor any other official claimed that the Indian government knew about or participated in the murder.
The charges against Bishnoi and Singh were a part of a larger investigation by US and Canadian authorities that accused 37 defendants connected to three organized crime groups in India of drug trafficking, extortion, and racketeering. According to the authorities, 24 of these defendants had already been detained or arrested.
Four Indian nationals were detained and charged by Canadian police in May 2024 in connection with Nijjar's murder. The police have stated that they are investigating whether the men had any connections to the Indian government. The alleged shooters are only referred to as co-conspirators in the US indictment; they are not named as defendants.
Under Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, relations between Ottawa and New Delhi have improved since he made his first official visit to India in February and began negotiations on a trade agreement that is anticipated to be finalized by November.
Some Sikh organizations have criticized his strategy, accusing Ottawa of failing to protect Sikh Canadians from foreign meddling and international persecution or to hold India accountable.
