US Indicts Crime Leader in Nijjar Killing, Sidestepping State Involvement Question

Lawrence Bishnoi, 33, leader of an India-based organized crime network, has been charged by US prosecutors in the 2023 assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a temple in Surrey, British Columbia. The indictment provides the first formal link between a specific criminal organization and the killing, which sparked a diplomatic crisis when Canada alleged Indian government involvement. By charging gang members rather than officials, the US prosecution answers who ordered the murder without addressing whether Indian state actors were involved—the core dispute that fractured Canada-India relations.