FBI issues $50,000 bounty, arrest warrant for ‘Goldy Brar’ in Nijjar murder case

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday issued a $50,000 bounty for Satinderjeet Singh, commonly known as ‘Goldy Brar,’ and issued an arrest warrant for his involvement in the Lawrence Bishnoi organized crime group. 

According to the FBI, Brar was engaged in a variety of violent acts in Southern California and across the United States and Canada, including “assassinations of political and religious figures, shootings, murders, kidnappings, extortions, assaults, and the trafficking of narcotics and weapons.”

The federal indictment unsealed in Los Angeles said that Lawrence Bishnoi, the head of an Indian criminal gang, and Singh ordered the shooting of prominent Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023.

He is charged with ordering the killing of Nijjar from his Indian prison cell.

The Bishnoi gang was designated as a terrorist enterprise by Canada. Its 24 members were arrested after a sting operation involving law enforcement officials in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The FBI said that a federal arrest warrant was issued for Singh on July 1 in a district court in Los Angeles, California, and was charged with “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Conspiracy; Conspiracy to Interfere and Attempted Interference with Commerce by Extortion; and Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute Controlled Substances.” 

Also charged is Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, 38, of Punjab, India, a gangster imprisoned in India who is an associate-turned-rival of Bishnoi.

Bhagwanpuria founded his own crime gang that now has over 1,000 members across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Bhagwanpuria is charged alongside 16 other defendants with operating a criminal enterprise that engaged in murder-for-hire, drug trafficking, kidnappings, extortion, weapons trafficking, and other crimes around the world, including in the United States and Canada.

Ravinder Singh Dhanda, 57, of Vancouver, Canada, is one of 11 people charged with a massive drug smuggling operation that authorities say saw them import hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine each week from the US into Canada.

India's 'brutal transnational organizations'

"Today’s coordinated operation strikes at the heart of three brutal transnational organizations that have terrorized families, exploited communities, and stolen lives through ruthless acts of violence in the US and abroad," said Patrick Grandy, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.

India has been repeatedly accused of being involved in extraterritorial killings. 

In September 2023, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said authorities were "actively pursuing credible allegations" linking Indian government agents to the murder of Nijjar.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office says it has credible evidence of a sophisticated and sinister Indian campaign of extra-territorial and extra-judicial killings.