The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought the extradition of Punjab police inspector Gurinderjit Singh Nagra for allegedly attempting to extort a family of $400,000 from a family in the United States at the behest of jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli alleged that Gurinderjit Singh was part of an extortion conspiracy linked to the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria criminal syndicate. The FBI said that Nagra attempted to extort the amount by threatening to implicate them in a false murder case in India. Bhagwanpuria was a longtime associate and now a rival to Lawrence Bishnoi.
Nagra was posted as the Station House Officer (SHO) of Tanda Police Station in Hoshiarpur district, has since been transferred to the police lines pending an inquiry.
"This indictment states that this gang of Bhagwanpuria partnered with corrupt police officials in India to falsely accuse enemies of crimes within India. One of the defendants, Gurinderjit Singh, is a police officer in India charged with attempting to extort victims here in Los Angeles by threatening to file false murder charges against them in India. They extorted a family for $400,000 until the victim actually agreed to pay money. We have charged him, and we will extradite him to the US," Essayli said.
The allegation was made during an announcement of “Operation Hardball”, a multinational crackdown on India-based transnational organised crime syndicates. Us authorities have unveiled about three federal indictements against 37 accused.
According to a seven-count federal grand jury indictment returned June 25, 17 people have been charged with murder-for-hire, drug trafficking, kidnappings, extortions, weapons trafficking, and other crimes around the world, including in the United States and Canada.
The indictment alleged that in April 2026, Gurlal Singh, a member of the Bhagwanpuri gang, threatened a victim in the United States before passing the victim’s details to Nagra in Punjab.
Prosecutors alleged that the officer implicated the victim, their father and sister in a murder case registered in Punjab relating to the January 2026 killing of a person identified in court documents only as "B.S."
The case was then used to extort the victim.
The federal prosecutors alleged that the syndicate relied on corrupt public officials and law enforcement in India to initiate false criminal proceedings against targeted individuals, thereby facilitating extortion and intimidation.
The US Department of Justice said that the “Bhagwanpuria gang operates as a transnational criminal syndicate headquartered in India with members across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. This group includes more than 1,000 members and associates worldwide, and more than 100 members and associates in the United States.”
