On the day that India and Canada expelled most of one another’s diplomats in an ugly dispute over an extrajudicial killing, Canadian police dropped another bombshell.
They claimed representatives of the Indian state were linked with the gang of one of the country’s most notorious criminals, Lawrence Bishnoi.
The 31-year-old Punjabi has spent the past decade in jail, facing multiple criminal charges. Most recently imprisoned in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, he has been accused by police in Punjab, Mumbai and elsewhere of continuing to plot extortion, murder, and other crimes from behind bars.
On Monday night in Ottawa, Brigitte Gauvin, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner, said “organised crime elements” were being used against Sikh Canadians such as the late Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who campaigned for an independent state, or “Khalistan”, in the Punjab region, and was shot dead last year.
She went on to mention the Bishnoi gang by name, saying: “We believe that that group is connected to agents of India.”
Bishnoi was already a familiar figure to many Indians. He was born in 1993 near the Pakistan border in India’s majority-Sikh Punjab state, one of its main sources of emigrants to Canada, the US and the UK.
He has been charged in more than three dozen cases, some of which are pending, and convicted of offences including attempted murder and possession of illegal firearms.
During Bishnoi’s decade in prison, news reports — often based on anonymous police sources — have linked him or his gang members, whose number Indian authorities estimate at 700, with shootings and other crimes. He has given interviews from behind bars, leading to speculation that he has access to phones or other devices in prison.
Now Bishnoi’s group was being named at a press briefing about a murder case in Canada that has inflamed tensions with India, and has stirred disquiet among New Delhi’s western partners, which have been keen to bolster it as a strategic ally against China.
An Indian government official, who asked not to be named, on Tuesday accused Ottawa of making “vague accusations” and putting the burden of denial on New Delhi, in an apparent response to the Bishnoi claims.
“At the [Canadian police] press briefing, assertions were made about connections of certain individuals to India,” the official said. “In no case were specifics provided.”
India’s government has not directly responded to the Canadian police claim about Indian agents using Bishnoi’s syndicate. Bishnoi’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
Bishnoi is frequent fodder for Indian tabloids, and this was the second time this week he made national headlines. On Sunday, an associate of his gang claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of Baba Siddique, a politician who was close to Bollywood stars in the commercial capital Mumbai.
Claims of possible links between Indian officials and criminals have added further pressure to the diplomatic crisis over Nijjar’s fatal shooting, as officials in Canada and the US investigate claims that the world’s largest democracy sponsors killings overseas.
India on Monday rejected what it called “preposterous imputations” by Canada, and expelled six diplomats, hours after Ottawa deported six Indians including its high commissioner Sanjay Verma. India said its diplomats had left because of fears for their safety.
Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, said the six had been identified as “persons of interest” in Nijjar’s killing in a suburb of Vancouver. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian police found “clear and compelling evidence” that agents of the Indian government were involved in “activities that pose a significant threat to public safety”.
In the separate US case, federal prosecutors have charged Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in a foiled plot against US-based Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh. They say that scheme was directed by an Indian official. Gupta has pleaded not guilty in the case, which has alarmed Washington.
The US Department of State on Monday said an Indian committee of inquiry into the alleged murder plot would be visiting Washington from Tuesday. India’s government has denied involvement in the Nijjar killing and the Singh plot, but analysts say its vow to investigate the latter is a reflection of the greater value it places on ties with the US.
“It is extraordinary for a country that calls itself democratic, and is considered democratic by other countries, to do what they’re accused of doing,” said Priya Chacko, an associate professor of international politics at the University of Adelaide. “It’s something that you would expect from an authoritarian regime.”
Indian media on Tuesday reported widely on Canada’s linking of the Bishnoi gang with the crimes in Canada. Broadcaster India Today dismissed it as an “old claim”. Modi’s government has accused Canada of harbouring extremist Sikhs and criminal elements in its diaspora population.
Bishnoi and his gang have been connected with other violent crimes in India. In April this year, when gunmen fired shots outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s home in an attempt on his life, Indian media connected Bishnoi with the case. He did not claim responsibility, but he had previously been captured on film threatening Khan, saying he would “definitely kill him”.
Khan was convicted in 1998 of poaching two blackbucks, an endangered species of antelope; Bishnoi’s community, a religious grouping that practises vegetarianism, views the animal as sacred.
In 2022 Bishnoi’s name was linked to the assassination of Sidhu Moose Wala, a Punjabi singer. His gang claimed responsibility for the shooting, but Bishnoi himself never did, though he and several others were charged. He has denied responsibility for the murder.
In Canada, police in May charged three men with first-degree murder in Nijjar’s killing.
One analyst described the Canada-India showdown as indicative of a “more muscular foreign policy” under Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party-led government.
“To see two countries that are both democracies and both claim to be advocates of the rules-based international order — and both close allies of the US — have such a public breakdown in relations is surprising,” said Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House. “These are two countries that are supposed to be on the same side.”
Canadian police continue to investigate Nijjar’s death, along with what Trudeau said were allegations of Indian state involvement in “clandestine information-gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians, and involvement in over a dozen threatening and violent acts”.
But the allegation of the Bishnoi gang’s involvement has compounded an escalating scandal. Chacko said: “It’s extraordinary for a government to be accused of working with a criminal gang.”