Punjab Police Inspector named in extortion racket, US to seek extradition

According to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jalandhar Range, the superintendent of police, Jalandhar Rural, an IPS officer, will probe the allegations and submit a detailed report at the earliest.

The details, laid bare in US court documents, show how corruption at the local level in Punjab enabled global criminal enterprises to thrive across continents. A US Department of Justice official made these revelations in a press statement in California late on July 7.

In April 2026, Gurlal Singh, a 22-year-old illegal immigrant from India living in Stockton, California, and an alleged member of the Bhagwanpuria syndicate, provided the name and details of a victim (identified in court papers as Victim 2) to Nagra.

Nagra then allegedly contacted the victim’s father and threatened to implicate the entire family, including the victim’s sister, in the January 2026 murder of a man identified as “B.S.”.

As per the FBI, on April 13, 2026, Nagra told the victim’s father that charges would be filed against him for the murder. On April 16, he allegedly demanded payment, warning that failure to pay would result in all three family members being named as accused. In May 2026, following a press conference in Punjab where Indian authorities publicly accused the family, Nagra allegedly continued pressuring the victims for money, explicitly referencing instructions from Gurlal Singh and complaining that “they didn’t pay us the whole amount what was agreed upon”.

The indictment states that members of the Bhagwanpuria group “corrupted law enforcement officers in India and partnered with corrupt government officials” to assist in extortion schemes and to file baseless criminal cases against rivals.

This Punjab-based corruption was not an isolated incident but part of an alleged deliberate strategy by the syndicate to use the police in India as tools for intimidation and profit.

Bishnoi, Bhagwanpuria, and Dhanda

The exposure of Gurinderjit Singh Nagra’s role came amid a coordinated international takedown announced on July 7 by the US Department of Justice, the FBI, and partners in Canada and Europe. Law enforcement arrested 24 defendants connected to three India-based transnational organised crime groups.

The groups—the Bishnoi enterprise (led by Lawrence Bishnoi from a prison in Punjab), the Bhagwanpuria enterprise (led by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, also imprisoned in Punjab), and the Dhanda group (led by Ravinder Singh Dhanda from Canada)—face charges including racketeering conspiracy, extortion, narcotics trafficking, firearms offences and murder-for-hire.

The syndicates are accused of orchestrating violence that extend beyond India’s borders. This includes the 2023 assassination of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, a killing Canadian authorities had earlier linked to Indian criminal networks.

First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli stated that the criminal organisations “have engaged in widespread violence, including targeted killings, extortions and kidnappings” and “have preyed in particular on communities in the United States and Canada with ties to India”.

The FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office led the US investigation, with assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and international partners including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Spanish authorities.