US Charges Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar for Nijjar's Assassination in Canada

Los Angeles / Washington D.C. | The United States Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment in Los Angeles on July 7, 2026 charging Lawrence Bishnoi, the imprisoned head of one of India's most powerful organised crime networks and his North American lieutenant Satinderjeet Singh, known as Goldy Brar, with directing the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on June 18, 2023. The charges are the first by US authorities directly linking Bishnoi and Brar to Nijjar's killing, a murder that triggered one of the worst diplomatic crises between India and Canada in decades.

The indictment was unsealed as part of a sweeping coordinated law enforcement action named Operation Hard Ball, conducted jointly by American, Canadian, and European agencies. Across three indictments unsealed simultaneously on July 7, a total of 37 defendants connected to three India-based transnational organised crime groups were charged. Twenty-four were arrested or already in custody, eleven of them in California, one in Indiana, one in Georgia, three in Canada, and one in Spain. Ten fugitives remain at large, including seven in the United States, two in India, and one in Europe. Law enforcement also seized approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine and a dozen firearms as part of the operation.

What the Indictment Alleges: Directed From a Jail Cell

The federal indictment alleges that Bishnoi, currently serving a sentence inside an Indian prison, directed the entire operation from his jail cell using smuggled mobile phones. According to prosecutors, Bishnoi personally supplied a co-conspirator with a photograph and multiple addresses of Nijjar to facilitate the assassination. Goldy Brar, Bishnoi's childhood associate and North American deputy, allegedly coordinated the gang's overseas operations and communicated with operatives on the ground in Canada to execute the plan.

Nijjar is identified in the court documents only by the initials "H.S.N." He was shot dead outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey on June 18, 2023. He was a Canadian citizen originally from Punjab, India, and a prominent supporter of the Khalistan movement, the campaign for an independent Sikh homeland carved out of northern India. He had been designated a terrorist by the Indian government, which accused him of links with the Khalistan Tiger Force. Nijjar and his supporters consistently rejected those allegations and maintained that his activism was peaceful and political in nature.

Critically, the US indictment does not allege any role by the Indian government in the killing. First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli, who addressed a press conference in Los Angeles, did not allege that Indian government officials were involved in or aware of the operation. This is a significant departure from the diplomatic narrative that had defined the international response to Nijjar's killing for the preceding three years.

In November 2023, Bishnoi claimed responsibility on social media for a separate shooting at the Vancouver home of a prominent Indian actor and singer, writing in Punjabi: "No one can save you from us." The US indictment references this claim as part of its description of how the Bishnoi gang used high-profile violent acts to terrorise and extort members of the Indian diaspora community in North America.

Bishnoi, Brar and the Organisation: Who They Are

Lawrence Bishnoi is one of India's most notorious imprisoned gangsters, running a sprawling criminal network from behind bars. He was arrested in 2015 while he was a student leader, initially on charges related to illegal weapons possession. His criminal empire grew significantly while he was in custody, with the gang claiming responsibility for multiple murders, extortion campaigns against businessmen and entertainers, and coordinated violence targeting individuals perceived as enemies of the Bishnoi community's religious values.

Bishnoi is currently being held in one of India's high-security prisons. His case has attracted additional international attention because of his brother, Anmol Bishnoi, who is a fugitive wanted in India and has been linked to multiple violent incidents. Anmol Bishnoi has filed a petition in a Mumbai court seeking permission to surrender in connection with the Salman Khan firing case, a separate high-profile case involving shots fired at the Bollywood actor's residence in Mumbai.

The US Department of Justice described Bishnoi as having "projected an image of himself as a 'patriot,' 'nationalist,' and deeply religious individual through social media posts and interviews with news organizations," and said he used this public persona to recruit members into his criminal organisation.

Goldy Brar, whose full name is Satinderjeet Singh, is described by prosecutors as Bishnoi's North American lieutenant. He is currently at large. The FBI has announced a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest. On July 1, 2026, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Brar in the United States District Court, Central District of California, on charges of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Conspiracy, Conspiracy to Interfere and Attempted Interference with Commerce by Extortion, and Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute Controlled Substances. The FBI's Los Angeles Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Patrick Grandy described the day's action as striking "at the heart of three brutal transnational organizations that have terrorised families, exploited communities, and stolen lives through ruthless acts of violence in the US and abroad."

Operation Hard Ball: The Three Indictments and What Each Covers

The Bishnoi-Brar Nijjar indictment is one of three separate indictments unsealed as part of Operation Hard Ball. The second indictment charges eleven people in connection with an operation that allegedly smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine each week from the United States into Canada. Among those charged are Ravinder Singh Dhanda of Vancouver, Jaskarn Baghr of Surrey, British Columbia, and Gurtej Singh Smagh of Creston, British Columbia.

The third indictment charges seventeen members of a criminal group operated by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, another imprisoned Indian gangster, with a range of offences including racketeering, extortion, and narcotics trafficking. Bhagwanpuria, like Bishnoi, is alleged to have run his transnational criminal organisation from within an Indian prison.

Across all three indictments, the common thread identified by prosecutors is the use of criminal violence and extortion to terrorise and control Indian diaspora communities in the United States, Canada, and Europe, with operations directed from Indian prisons through encrypted digital communications and intermediaries operating across multiple countries.

The operation resulted in the seizure of approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine and twelve firearms. RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, addressing the Los Angeles press conference, said the investigation had "dismantled the leadership of three criminal organizations that inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe."

The Diplomatic History: Trudeau, India, and the Three-Year Crisis

The US indictment lands at the end of a three-year diplomatic crisis between India and Canada that was triggered by Nijjar's killing and brought bilateral relations to one of their lowest points in the two countries' history.

In September 2023, three months after Nijjar's assassination, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in the House of Commons that Canadian intelligence agencies were pursuing what he described as "credible allegations" linking Indian government agents to the murder. India rejected the accusation as "absurd" and "politically motivated," and the subsequent months saw a sharp escalation: reciprocal expulsions of diplomats, the withdrawal of the Indian High Commissioner from Ottawa, Canadian orders for Indian diplomats to leave, and a freeze on bilateral engagement across most formal channels.

Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police had previously arrested four Indian nationals in connection with Nijjar's murder and had publicly alleged that members of the Bishnoi gang were involved in targeting pro-Khalistan activists on Canadian soil. The Canadian government also subsequently designated the Bishnoi group as a terrorist entity. But the specific question of Indian government involvement in the killing, the allegation that defined the diplomatic crisis, was never substantiated by any publicly available evidence, and the relationship between Ottawa and New Delhi remained deeply strained throughout.

The US indictment's explicit decision not to allege any Indian government involvement is therefore diplomatically significant. It places the responsibility for the killing on a criminal network rather than on a state actor, a framing that differs materially from Trudeau's parliamentary allegations, while also establishing, for the first time in any formal legal proceeding, a documented chain of command from Bishnoi and Brar to the men who pulled the trigger outside the Guru Nanak Gurdwara on June 18, 2023.

India-Canada relations have shown tentative signs of stabilisation since Trudeau's resignation from the Liberal leadership and the subsequent change of government in Ottawa. The US indictment does not resolve all outstanding questions in the bilateral relationship, but by establishing a criminal rather than state-directed framework for the killing in a formal US legal proceeding, it alters the diplomatic terrain on which those conversations will now take place.

What Comes Next: India, Extradition, and the Fugitive Hunt

Bishnoi is in Indian custody and cannot be extradited to the United States under the current state of India-US extradition arrangements without the consent of Indian authorities. The Indian government has not issued a formal public response to the US charges as of the time of writing. Whether Washington will formally seek Bishnoi's extradition or cooperation from Indian authorities in the investigation remains to be seen.

Goldy Brar remains at large. The FBI's reward offer of $50,000 for information leading to his arrest signals that locating him is a priority for US law enforcement. Ten additional fugitives across the three Operation Hard Ball indictments remain unaccounted for, with seven believed to be in the United States, two in India, and one in Europe.

The US Attorney's office in Los Angeles has indicated that the investigation is ongoing and that further charges may be filed as the probe continues to develop.