Fact-based journalism that sparks the Canadian conversation

Articles Business Environment Health Politics Arts & Culture Society

Special Series Hope You’re Well For the Love of the Game Living Rooms In Other Worlds: A Space Exploration Terra Cognita More special series >

For the Love of the Game

In Other Worlds: A Space Exploration

More special series >

Events The Walrus Talks The Walrus Video Room The Walrus Leadership Roundtables The Walrus Leadership Forums Article Club

The Walrus Video Room

The Walrus Leadership Roundtables

The Walrus Leadership Forums

Subscribe Renew your subscription Change your address Magazine Issues Newsletters Podcasts

Renew your subscription

The Walrus Lab Hire The Walrus Lab Amazon First Novel Award

Amazon First Novel Award

Is Canada Letting India Get Away with Murder?

New Delhi is using Ottawa’s silence to absolve itself of the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Most Canadians first heard of notorious Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police named him in connection with the high-profile assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, three years ago. The thirty-three-year-old, already serving time in Indian prisons for dozens of other murders and extortion cases since 2014, suddenly became central to Canada’s working theory that Nijjar’s killing was not just a local gang hit—but a transnational operation with state backing, an accusation first officially levelled by then prime minister Justin Trudeau in Parliament in September 2023.

Bishnoi currently resides in the high-security Sabarmati prison in the state of Gujarat, and the Indian federal government is preventing his movement out of that facility even for court appearances. Despite his imprisonment, Bishnoi’s profile as a devout Hindu and nationalist gangster, built around high-profile violence and social media bravado, has swelled globally. So it did not come as a surprise when, earlier this month, American federal prosecutors unsealed sweeping indictments against three India-based criminal networks, in what was dubbed Operation Hard Ball, with the gangster prominent in there.

Among the thirty-seven charged were Bishnoi and his self-proclaimed lieutenant-turned-rival, Satinderjeet “Goldy Brar” Singh, who is at large. These organized crime groups rely on racketeering, killings, shootings, extortion, drug trafficking, and other crimes across the globe—and manage their operations through encrypted digital communications and a network of foot soldiers in North America and Europe. While the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s focus was on taking these gangs out of commission and seeking their extradition from India, the charges—worked out in co-operation with the RCMP—alleged that Bishnoi and Brar “ordered the assassination” of Nijjar as part of........

© The Walrus