FBI Places Goldy Brar on Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, Offers up to $1 Million Reward
New Delhi: Satinderjeet Singh, better known by his alias Goldy Brar, has been added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. The federal agency is offering up to $1 million for information leading to his arrest in connection with the charges he faces as an alleged leader of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
The “variety of violent acts” in southern California but also across the US and Canada that Brar is accused of being involved in include “assassinations of political and religious figures, shootings, murders, kidnappings, extortions, assaults and the trafficking of narcotics and weapons”, his entry on the list states.
In July, US federal authorities as part of ‘Operation Hardball’ accused Brar and Bishnoi of ‘ordering the assassination’ of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. They also indicted Brar on charges of conspiracy to commit extortion and racketeering as well as to distribute hard drugs.
They issued an arrest warrant against Punjab-origin Brar in July and offered $50,000 at the time for information leading to his arrest and extradition. He is accused of heading the Bishnoi gang's North American operations.
Brar “should be considered armed and dangerous and an escape risk” and is believed to be based in the US, his entry in the list says.
Nijjar's June 2023 assassination and Ottawa's subsequent allegation that agents linked to the Indian government were involved in his killing had triggered a severe deterioration in Indo-Canadian relations before Mark Carney's election as prime minister set off a thaw in ties.
When Operation Hardball was announced, the chief of the Canadian federal police suggested that while US authorities' indictments do not allege involvement by Indian officials, Ottawa's investigation of Nijjar's murder remained on a separate track. Early this year the Canada-based Global News outlet reported that Canadian law enforcement accused the Bishnoi gang of “acting on behalf of the Indian government”.
Earlier, Brar in 2022 claimed to have ordered the assassination of musician Sidhu Moosewala in Punjab.
According to the FBI, public assistance has led to the arrest of 164 of the 543 individuals who have figured on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
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