The Punjab Police has arrested an officer more than a week after he was charged in the United States in an alleged extortion conspiracy involving India-based organised crime groups, PTI reported on Saturday.

On July 7, the authorities in the US charged Gurinderjit Singh for allegedly extorting $400,000 from a family in Los Angeles by threatening to file false murder cases against their relatives in India.

First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli had said at the time that Washington will seek the extradition of the Indian police officer.

The US federal indictments alleged that he colluded with members of an organised crime group led by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria to target perceived rivals with threats of false cases and demands for money, The Tribune reported.

The indictment alleges that in April, a California-based member of the Bhagwanpuria syndicate named Gurlal Singh threatened a victim in the US before passing on the person’s details to a “corrupt law enforcement officer” in Punjab.

Gurinderjit Singh allegedly implicated the victim, as well as the victim’s father and sister in a murder case in Punjab in connection with the killing of a person in January, The Tribune reported.

When the charges were made public, Gurinderjit Singh claimed that he had no idea why he had been named, The Indian Express reported. He had been shifted to the Police Lines in Hoshiarpur and an inquiry has been ordered against him.

Crackdown on Indian gangs

Gurinderjit Singh is among 37 defendants charged for organised crimes in three indictments unsealed on July 7, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said. The charges are part of an action against India-based transnational gangs.

Those charged include gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar for organised crimes and ordering the 2023 killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. Bishnoi is in a Gujarat jail awaiting trial in several cases. Brar, whose real name is Satinderjeet Singh, is absconding.

Those charged in the US include two “who ran their global criminal syndicates while imprisoned” in India, the federal authorities stated.

The law enforcement agencies in the US, Canada and Europe arrested 24 persons allegedly linked to three India-based transnational organised crime groups, the authorities said. Seven defendants were already in custody.

The agencies were looking for 10 fugitives, seven of whom are in the US, two in India and one in Europe, the attorney’s office said.

The persons have been charged with several criminal acts.

The arrests – codenamed “Operation Hard Ball” – followed a years-long federal investigation into Indian crime syndicates, the attorney’s office said.

The groups are alleged to be involved in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion and the smuggling of narcotics, among other crimes “whose impact is especially felt in the Indian diaspora”.

Edited by Sara Varghese.