Punjab Police arrests its officer facing FBI allegations of extorting $400,000 from NRI family

Chandigarh: Punjab Police have arrested its officer Gurinderjit Singh Nagra, who has been facing FBI allegations of $400,000 extortion linked to international crime syndicates.

Under ‘Operation Hard Ball’, US authorities accused Inspector Nagra, the former Station House Officer (SHO) of the police station in Tanda town in Hoshiarpur district, of colluding with the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria syndicate to extort an Indian-origin family in California by threatening to falsely implicate their relatives in a murder in Punjab.

Following the US federal indictment, Punjab Police relieved Nagra of his duties and transferred to police lines.

After an investigation, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against him on late Friday for extortion and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

‘Operation Hard Ball’ is a multinational investigation targeting organised crime groups accused of multiple crimes across the US, Canada and Europe.

Nagra is accused of demanding reason for the killing of a man who was gunned down by three motorcycle-borne people at his hardware store in Tanda town on January 15 this year.

While gangsters Jashal Chambal and Gurlal Rudiana had claimed responsibility for the crime, Inspector Nagra allegedly demanded a $400,000 payout, warning the US-based NRI family they would be formally named co-conspirators in the murder case if they failed to pay.

During his posting at the state special operation cell (SSOC) in Amritsar, Nagra was among the officials who arrested self-styled Khalistani preacher Amritpal Singh, the Waris Punjab De founder, who is now a member of Parliament from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib, in 2023.

Later, Nagra travelled to Assam’s Dibrugarh prison to interrogate Amritpal in the Ajnala police station attack and clashed with policemen to secure the release of his associate Lovepreet Singh Toofan, who had been arrested in an attempt to murder case.

“He (Nagra) is also the same inspector who registered the sacrilege case, after which the AAP government publicly praised and backed him. Had the FBI not named him, Guru Dokhi (a betrayer of the Guru) Bhagwant Mann would never have had him arrested,” Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia wrote on X.

He said his arrest alone “is not enough. He should be thoroughly questioned, preferably by the CBI, to uncover the entire network and determine whether any AAP leaders were linked to the alleged drug and extortion nexus”.

“Has Guru Dokhi Bhagwant Mann turned Punjab’s brave police force into a hub of contract based corruption?” he added.

Law enforcement in the US, Canada, and Europe have arrested 24 defendants — 11 of them in California — connected to three India-based transnational organised crime groups charged with a litany of criminal acts, including the assassination in Canada in 2023 of a prominent Indian political and religious figure, the Justice Department announced on July 7.

It said the law enforcement action — ‘Operation Hard Ball’ — is the result of a years-long federal investigation into Indian crime syndicates that engage in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion, the trafficking of bulk quantities of narcotics across international borders, and other crimes around the world whose impact is especially felt in the Indian diaspora.

In total, 37 defendants — including two defendants who ran their global criminal syndicates while imprisoned in India — are charged across three indictments unsealed on July 7. Three defendants have been arrested in Canada, one defendant was arrested in Spain, and seven defendants already were in custody prior to today’s law enforcement operation.

Law enforcement is looking for 10 fugitives — seven in the United States, two in India, and one in Europe. As part of this investigation, law enforcement has seized approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine and 1 kilogram of heroin along with $40,000 in cash and a dozen firearms.

A total of 23 search warrants have been executed in the Sacramento area and 11 warrants have been executed in the Los Angeles area.

IANS