The Decibel - The Bishnoi gang and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

The 2023 murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., led to a major diplomatic rift between Canada and India. Mr. Nijjar was a prominent Canadian Sikh separatist. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused agents of the Indian government of being involved in the killing. Four people had previously been arrested in connection to Nijjar’s killing. Now, U.S. officials have unsealed an indictment alleging gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi and his alleged North American deputy “ordered the assassination” of Nijjar. Mike Hager is a staff reporter with the Globe’s B.C. bureau. Today, he joins the show to explain who Lawrence Bishnoi is, what his gang is accused of, and alleged connections to the Indian government. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The 23 murder of Hardeeb Singh Niger in Suri, B.C., led to a major diplomatic rift between Canada and India. Nijjar was a prominent Canadian Sikh separatist. Then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused agents of the Indian government of being involved in the killing. Last week, U.S. prosecutors charged two people in connection with the murder. The prosecutors do not make direct reference on links to the Indian government. However, the charges do lead directly to organized crime. The charges set forth in E-Diamon include allegations that the Bishnoi, that Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldie Brer directed the 2023 assassination of a prominent Sikh leader in Canada.

Lawrence Bishnoy is the head of the Bishnoi gang, an international crime syndicate based in India. Goldie Brar is his alleged North American deputy. The gang has been accused of extortion, drug trafficking, and murder. In Europe, the U.S., and Canada. This is the first time that the leader of this transnational gang that has allegedly terrorized the diaspora across numerous countries has been charged in the U.S. That's Mike Haker, a BC-based reporter for the globe.

And it appears the U.S. wants to bring him there to face justice. Four suspects had already been arrested in Canada for Nijar's murder, but the question remains, who ordered the killing? Today, Mike is here to explain who Lawrence Bichanoi is, what his gang is accused of, and the alleged connections to the Indian government. I'm Cheryl Sutherland, and this is the decibel from the Globe and Mail. Hi, Mike, thank you so much for joining me today.

No problem, Cheryl. Always a pleasure. So Mike, Lawrence Bishnoy is the alleged leader of the Bishnoy gang. I want to start by learning about him. What do we know about who he is and how he came to be this figure? Well, he, first off, is quite young. He's only 33 years old. And he grew up in northwest India on the border with Pakistan to a very well-to-do family. His dad was a police officer.

They had big farm. When he was young, he went to Chandigar, and he went to Punjab University to study law. And student politics at that university were very fraught. There was a lot of violence among the different factions vying to lead the student council. And so he got into politics there, and he gained a reputation for violence. And in 2010, he was charged with attempted murder, assault, and art. as part of this election he was part of. This is about student elections, and he was charged with attempted murder, assault, and

arson. Student council elections, yes. Wow. And he went on to win that election, but four years later, he was imprisoned for those crimes. And he's been in prison ever since. So since 2014, he's been imprisoned. and he's currently in a supermax

Simom Security prison in India's capital. It's a couple of things I want to kind of highlight here. So it's fascinating to learn that through these student elections is kind of what allegedly led him into this world of crime. And he would have been very young, like 17, 18 years old when that would have happened. Yes. So he had a group of acolytes, for lack of better word, that helped him achieve power in the student political world.

And then he pivoted to the criminal world and started allegedly directing his colleagues to extort and rob. And so that was kind of the genesis of what we know now as the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was he quickly pivoted. And from behind bars, allegedly started directing a growing number of people to do his. bidding to kind of target wealthy Indian folks for a number of crimes. So help me understand that part of it, because he has been in prison since 2014, and it sounds like this Bishnoi gang grew. How did that happen? How was he, I mean, how many people were involved?

And how did this become a criminal organization while he's behind bars? Yeah, part of its strength is it's very decentralized. And, you know, people gain members. claim membership, often online. And so there are reports that about 700 members of the Bishnoi gang are operating around the world right now. And so from behind bars, he's able to get allegedly cell phone smuggled in and, you know, has been video calling people from behind bars frequently. So communication is not an issue. And they really thrived on notoriety. So they had no problem going online and claiming responsibility for shocking, gruesome murders.

That's in fact when he rose to infamy. In about 22, Sidu Musuala, who was India's first, like, gangster rap star. He actually had his first hit in 2017 when he was an international student in Brampton. So Muswalah was gaining huge acclaim, rising through the charts, yet allegedly he was allied with a rival political group. And Bishnoi allegedly had him shot to death in the Punjab in 2022 and then went online and claimed responsibility for killing him. And that is what really catapulted Lawrence Bishnoi. to infamy in India. And there would be a little while later

until we started hearing about him here. Yeah, I want to get to the Canada connections in a moment, but I'm so curious to know, you know, you explain that he's running this gang behind bars, but like why are people following him? Like, what is it about, do we have any sense of why he becomes the kind of leader of this? He's a renegade.

He thumbed his nose at traditional roots to power and by dint of his aggression and ambition rose to this point where he's one of the most feared people in India and among its diaspora. So brazen power is appealing, especially to a group of young men that are looking to find themselves in the world, find their way. And you add to that the incredible amplifying power of social media and, you know, glorifying the gangster lifestyle online, you know, there's definitely appeal there to a number of folks. Mike, what do we know about the alleged motivations of the Bishnoi gang? We know that it's a classic example of questing for money and power.

and yet there's also the added wrinkle of, you know, an expressed devotion to Hinduism and what appears to be desired to kind of contribute to the Hindu nationalist movement that is really championed by Prime Minister Narenda Modi. The gang is allegedly involved in crimes in Canada. What do we know about when that started and why? So about a year and a half after that shocking murder of Situ Mosuala, the rap star, in the Punjab, police of Vancouver suburb of Abbotsford first reported investigating the Bishnois for allegedly targeting wealthy locals and shooting up their homes after they failed to pay large sums of money.

And that was about the same time that a bulletin went out and was leaked actually. to a blog among Mounties in BC warning about the Bishnoi group's activity. So that was about the start of when locally here in B.C. And then also in Alberta and the GTA, especially in Peel region, where we saw sick Canadians starting to get targeted by Bishnoi's proxies, allegedly. And these places you're talking about have, large sick population. Yeah, huge communities here and many have ties back to India. And those ties are what Bishnoi and other groups allegedly exploit as well. You know, they,

they gather as much intel on targets as possible and then allegedly threaten these people and threaten their families that they may have in India as well. So, I mean, we've had hundreds of concerning incidents over the last couple of years and an outcry from many folks and now politicians as well. And the federal and BC and Ontario governments have acknowledged it and put some money now towards task forces to crack down on this wave of largely extortions, but also shootings and arsons. How has Canadian law enforcement been dealing with this? Not very well to start. And then lately, like I said, there's been a real acknowledgement from RCMP leadership and various municipal forces that are confronting this wave of

extortions and shootings. And we're starting to see charges in BC. There was early success in Edmonton. They had a large task force to look into the arsons and shootings there, and they they got a number of charges. And then in Peel region, which includes Brampton and Mississauga, they had some crackdowns as well. And they had close to 50 arrests, over 250 charges. They seized four million in assets. And they found 10 stolen cars, 28 guns. And then last year, they did name the Bishnoi gang a terrorist entity.

What does that change? Well, we talked about it. about how transient the organization is, which makes it really tough. Because when you name a gang a terrorist entity, the thinking is you're able to seize their assets and really kind of hurt them financially. But that's just appears to be much tougher with the Bishnoi gang and similar groups, because they are so transient. There's not many assets in Canada to target. We'll be right back. So now that we have a sense of who Lawrence Bishnoi is, let's turn to the charges. So one of the big things we learned from the unsealed indictments is that authorities

allege that Lawrence Bishnoi and is alleged North American deputy, Satinderjit Singh, aka Goldie Bhrar, ordered the killing of Hardeeb Singh Nijar. Mike, can you just briefly remind us why this killing was such a big deal? Whoa, this was incredibly shocking, slaying outside a very busy, Guadwara in the middle of Surrey. And there was a foot chase at one point. It was just a really sloppy assassination. And this death very quickly sent shockwaves from Surrey to New Delhi.

And as our allies from Britain, the U.S., started sending intelligence. and the RCMP opened twin investigations into the murder. Ties to the Indian government started bubbling up very quickly, and that led to diplomatic fireworks, and where we had the expulsion of six Indian diplomats all at once. That was historic expulsion that really signaled a low point between India and Canada. And so since Prime Minister Trudeau, has left. Prime Minister Carney's tried to reset that relationship and almost move on from the

Hard Deep Singh-Nidjar slaying. But we've done some reporting this year that indicated that intelligence officials were shown evidence that a visa officer at the Indian consulate in Vancouver was instrumental in gaining information about Hard-deep Singh-Nidjar that was then passed back to India and then on to the Bishnoi gang and it's alleged hitmen. So it's very messy and it's very big news that the U.S. was this explicit and said, you know, Bishnoi and Goli and Goli Brar conspired with four unnamed conspirators, co-conspirators, who we must assume are the four accused now and facing trial in B.C. Supreme Court. And so this is the most explicit we've seen in terms of the bishnoi gang's involvement.

However, the indictments are very silent on any sort of involvement from the Indian government. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that because, you know, as you were talking about just now, was that former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of being involved in the killing of Nijar. But yeah, what does the indictment say about connections to the Indian government? Well, an indictment like this is hewing strictly to the facts concerning the accused. So they don't say anything about the Indian government's involvement. And, you know, the Indian government has seized upon this. And Indian news outlets covered this news last week extensively.

And they really kind of torqued that. This indictment had no mention of India. it's exonerating of India and any involvement that it allegedly had in the death of Hardeeb Singh-Najar. So just because India isn't mentioned at all doesn't necessarily mean much in terms of these indictments. What did Canadian officials have to say about the working theory that the killing was ordered by the Indian government? Probably not surprisingly very little.

The public safety minister's office declined to comment to my colleague Steve Chase. last week when we asked them about the indictment and their current stance on this theory. Prime Minister Carney is very intent on inking a trade deal with India and resetting this relationship that was so badly damaged by the slaying. And so they're not saying anything and they're very keen to move on. Our reporting has shown that the RCMP and CESIS presented clear evidence that India's officials, diplomats, were involved in this plot. So you mentioned the fact that the indictment does not mention the Indian government that on

television there, they're saying, see, this is actually showing there's no connection. Aside from that, what have Indian officials said to the allegations that Indian officials were connected to Najjar's killing? India has always flatly denied this publicly. and we have to be responsible in our communication. Every story we do, we reach out. And every time we do, if we get a response from the Indian High Commission in Canada, it is flatly denying any involvement.

And when this indictment came out, the High Commissioner Dinesh Patnick told us, New Delhi is welcoming these arrests and charges. And they've been asking allies to crack down on terms. transnational gangs. So they're very happy with Bishnoi being charged. And then, of course, the question is, well, will you facilitate his extradition? He's in custody. And Mr. Patnik said, you know, let's let the Indian courts decide that once the U.S. makes its formal request. The U.S. has said they're going to seek extradition of Bishnoi and a number of others who are in prison in India. They were named in the indictments. But that process hasn't begun yet.

So one other thing I want to talk about here, Mike, is that we're talking mostly about Najjar's killing, which happened in Canada. So why are we learning information from a U.S. indictment? Like, why is the U.S. involved in this investigation? So there are a number of allegations, mostly in California, surrounding the Bishnoi gang. And so that got the attention of the American authorities. Plus, we heard. at this big press conference in LA where the RCMP Commissioner flew down for it

and also spoke briefly he did say that after Nidjar's killing the twin probes, the murder probe and then the national security probe from Mounties both those investigations forwarded very crucial

intelligence and evidence to their American counterparts and their American counterparts outlined the charges regarding Nidjar, but they also really were a rundown of the types of things that the Bishnoid group is accused of across the world, really. And they include threatening a Vancouver actor and singer, a businessman in Brampton, an immigration consultant in Surrey, a trucking company owner in business. Britain and another man in California.

So these people were all told to pay, you know, tens of thousands of dollars up to several millions or face violence against themselves or their families. So after these shootings, the indictment says that the Bishnoi group would often go online to claim responsibility and create this image that they are everywhere and, you know, capable of reaching anyone. And so that's really central to the MO is this kind of boogeyman aspect. Someone like Bishnoy can be invoked and really used to strike fear into the hearts of targets. The other thing that really drew the attention of the FBI and the U.S. DOJ was they were so brazen that they allegedly were ripping off other drug trafficking outfits in California.

Wow. And so, you know, that type of activity really creates a lot of chaos. And chaos creates more violence in that world. So no doubt that drew a lot of attention as well from the American authorities. And so that's the other fascinating thing about this Bishnoi indictment is that a lot of these crimes happen on Canadian soil. And yet here he is getting indicted in L.A. So now there are these indictment. indictments. What happens now? We're going to have to hurry up and wait to see if the U.S.

follows through with its promise to begin extradition proceedings for Mr. Bishnoi and then see how the Indian courts respond. You know, we know from some high-profile extradition proceedings, those can take years. So really no resolution in the foreseeable future. There'll be a lot of hearings you'd imagine. And then we also have Goldie Bras in the wind. He is MIA in North America. We believed he was in Canada. But at this press conference, the FBI said that they think he's now in the U.S.

And Goldie Bra just to remind everyone is the alleged North American deputy. That's right. Yeah. At one point, Lawrence Bishnoe's own brother, Ann Moll, was living in around Sacramento. and I'm told that Goldie is his right-hand man in North America, the most important member of the gang. And so Goldie Brar has been basically his own boogeyman in Canada. His name is often invoked and he's allegedly sent voice notes to various targets,

threatening them allegedly. And so he, in his own right, is very feared and very affid. and very effective. And he has been basically in hiding for the last couple years. And the FBI has ratcheted up the pressure. They've issued a $50,000 reward for information that could lead to his arrest. So that's another aspect of this story. If they do find Mr. Brar, that will be huge news as well.

Mike, thank you so much for coming on this show and explaining all this. Really appreciate it. No problem. Thanks a lot, Cheryl. See you soon, hopefully. That was Mike Hager, a globe reporter based in B.C. That's it for today. I'm Cheryl Sutherland. Our producers are Madeline White, Rachel Levy McGlachlan, and Mahal Stein. Our editor is David Crosby. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor.

Thanks so much for listening.