NEW DELHI (AFP) – India's Bishnoi crime gang has a grim reputation for assassinations and extortion on its home soil, but now its reach appears to stretch much further after it was accused of involvement in the murder of a Sikh separatist in Canada.
Its alleged chief – 31-year-old law graduate Lawrence Bishnoi – has been behind bars for nearly a decade, currently held in India's Gujarat state facing trial for smuggling heroin from Pakistan.
The gang is suspected in the killing of a wildly popular Sikh rapper in 2022, and in the seemingly professional execution of a high-profile politician in India's financial capital Mumbai earlier this month.
And now Canadian police accuse it of possible involvement in a murder 11,500 kilometres (7,145 miles) away that sparked a furious diplomatic row after Ottawa said there was "credible" evidence linking New Delhi to the killing.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has said that India was using "organised crime elements" to target members of the South Asian diaspora and Sikh separatists, naming the "Bishnoi Group".
"We believe that the group is connected to agents of the government of India," RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin told reporters on Monday.
The case centres on Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead in a parking lot in June 2023 near his home in Vancouver.
Nijjar – who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 – had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.
He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
On Monday, India's envoy to Ottawa was reportedly named by Canada among the "persons of interest" in the investigation into Nijjar's killing, widening the diplomatic rift sparked by the murder.
India calls allegations it was connected to the killing "preposterous" and a "strategy of smearing India for political gains".
The fallout from the accusations has seen the expulsion of diplomats by both sides.
Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar's murder.
Executions and extortion
Bishnoi himself was sentenced in 2019 to five years behind bars on six charges, including two cases of attempted murder against police officers, as well as drug smuggling and carrying firearms.
He is currently held in a jail in Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat state, from which he purportedly continues to call the shots.
The son of a farmer, Lawrence was still a teenager when he made his foray into organised crime in 2010, including by intimidating rivals when he dabbled in student politics, according to a police dossier.
The gang made national headlines in 2022 when the rapper Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, who performed as Sidhu Moose Wala, was shot dead in Punjab.
Canada-based fugitive Goldy Brar – real name Satinderjit Singh, designated a "terrorist" by India – claimed he was behind the "revenge killing".
The gang purports to be representatives of the Bishnoi Hindu sect from the deserts of Rajasthan.
It issued death threats against Bollywood star Salman Khan to avenge his hunting of two antelopes, which the Bishnoi community considers to be reincarnations of their guru.
Two members of the gang were arrested by Indian police in April for firing at Khan's home in Mumbai. The actor was unhurt.
Earlier this month, the Bishnoi gang was implicated in another high-profile murder, with police saying its members were behind the killing of Mumbai-based Baba Siddique, a politician with close ties to Bollywood and Khan.