American federal authorities have charged Lawrence Bishnoi, the imprisoned head of a major Indian criminal organisation, and his associate Satinderjeet Singh — also known as Goldy Brar — with orchestrating the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh independence activist killed outside a temple in Surrey, British Columbia, in June 2023. The charges were unsealed in Los Angeles on Tuesday as part of a sweeping two-year law enforcement operation, dubbed Operation Hardball, that targeted three India-based transnational crime networks across multiple continents.

The federal indictment alleges that Bishnoi directed the killing from inside an Indian prison cell, using smuggled mobile phones to communicate with co-conspirators and providing them with a photograph and multiple addresses for Nijjar. In total, 37 defendants were charged across three indictments, with 24 arrests carried out in the United States, Canada and Europe. Eleven arrests were made in California alone, where the groups are accused of having caused particular harm to Indian diaspora communities. Authorities are still searching for ten fugitives — seven in the US, two in India and one in Europe. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Brar, who remains at large.

Nijjar, who was 45 at the time of his death and a Canadian citizen born in India, was a leading figure in the Khalistan movement, which seeks an independent Sikh homeland. He had been organising an unofficial referendum among the Sikh diaspora through the group Sikhs For Justice, and was on an Indian wanted list at the time of his killing. Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside India, and Sikh diaspora activism has long been a source of friction between the two countries, with India repeatedly accusing Canada of tolerating what it describes as extremism.

Nijjar's murder triggered a significant diplomatic crisis. Then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated publicly that there were