Gurugram / Las Vegas — Two of Haryana's most-wanted gangsters, Himanshu Bhau and Neeraj Faridpuria, both wanted in India in connection with dozens of criminal cases including murder, attempted murder and extortion, were taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Las Vegas area of Nevada on October 22, 2026. Haryana's Special Task Force (STF) is now coordinating with US authorities and India's Central Bureau of Investigation to secure their return to India.
Haryana STF Inspector General Simardeep Singh confirmed the development, stating that both gangsters had been detained in Las Vegas. According to officials, Himanshu Bhau's location was tracked down with the help of technical surveillance and source-based information, after which the coordinates were shared with US law enforcement agencies, who carried out the arrest on Thursday evening, October 22.
The US government's online detainee locator subsequently listed two Indian-born men, identified as Himanshu Sigroha and Neeraj Kaushik, as being held in ICE custody at the Henderson Detention Center in Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas. According to reporting, Faridpuria was picked up after he had removed an ankle monitor, he had reportedly been detained earlier in the year on separate grounds and released on bail at that time.
Who Is Himanshu Bhau
Himanshu Bhau, whose real name is reported as Himanshu Ritoliya (also referenced in some reports as Himanshu Sigroha), was born in 2002 and hails from Ritoli village in Haryana's Rohtak district. He features on the most-wanted lists of both Haryana and Delhi Police, and is reportedly wanted in connection with more than 30, and by some accounts over 50, criminal cases, including at least 16 involving murder or attempted murder, along with extortion and Arms Act offences registered across Haryana and Delhi.
He is reported to have fled India in 2022, operating in subsequent years from Portugal and later Spain before his eventual presence in the United States. Interpol issued a Red Notice against him in August 2023. He has been linked by investigators to a violent rivalry with the Lawrence Bishnoi-Goldy Brar network, and separately to shootouts and killings in Delhi and Haryana, including a shootout at a car showroom in Tilak Nagar and a murder in Rajouri Garden.
Who Is Neeraj Faridpuria
Neeraj Faridpuria, a resident of Haryana's Palwal district, has more than 25 criminal cases registered against him. He has previously been linked to the Bambiha gang, a rival network to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and Haryana Police had earlier arrested him following an encounter in 2012. He is reported to have fled India around 2019.
Both Faridpuria and Himanshu Bhau have been linked by investigators to a shooting outside the Gurugram residence of YouTuber Elvish Yadav on August 17, 2026, with two suspected shooters subsequently arrested by police who said the accused had acted on orders from the two gangsters, who allegedly arranged weapons, funds and logistics for the attack from abroad.
Reports indicate that both men had allegedly used passports obtained through forged documents and assumed different identities in an effort to avoid detection while abroad. Indian agencies, including the Haryana STF, shared intelligence inputs on the pair's location in Las Vegas with US authorities, leading to their detention by ICE.
The Path to Deportation: A Legal Distinction
Officials and legal observers have noted an important distinction in how Bhau and Faridpuria's custody is being handled compared to a formal extradition process. Because the two men were taken into custody as part of US immigration enforcement action rather than through a bilateral extradition request, their return to India, if it occurs, is more likely to proceed through US immigration court proceedings than through the India-US extradition treaty process.
This reflects a broader pattern in which Indian investigators have increasingly turned to US immigration proceedings, rather than formal extradition, to secure the return of wanted fugitives located in the United States. Whether Bhau and Faridpuria follow this path depends on the outcome of their individual immigration cases, including whether either man files a claim for asylum or other relief before a US immigration judge, a process that could affect both the timeline and the ultimate forum through which any return to India is arranged.
India's Central Bureau of Investigation functions as the country's National Central Bureau for Interpol, and typically coordinates requests for the location, provisional arrest and return of fugitives wanted in India who are located abroad, including through Interpol Red Notices of the kind issued against Himanshu Bhau in 2023. A Red Notice is an international request to law enforcement agencies to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action, but does not itself constitute an enforceable international arrest warrant; its practical effect depends on the domestic law of the country in which the wanted person is found.
Separately, the India-US Extradition Treaty, in force since 1997, provides the formal bilateral legal framework for the surrender of fugitives wanted for offences recognised as extraditable under both countries' laws, subject to the treaty's dual-criminality requirement. Where a wanted individual is instead apprehended through immigration enforcement, as appears to be the case here, their return to the country of origin may instead proceed under US immigration law, including provisions governing removal of individuals present in the US without valid legal status or those found to have obtained immigration documents or passports through fraud or misrepresentation, a process that operates through the US immigration court system rather than the criminal extradition process, though both can, in different cases, ultimately result in a wanted individual's return to their country of origin.
