NEW DELHI: Indian police opened an inquiry on Wednesday after an officer was linked by US authorities to an alleged extortion scheme run by an India-based transnational organised crime group.
The operation involved law enforcement officials in the United States, Canada and Europe who had together been probing crime syndicates that engage in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion and drug trafficking.
Police in India´s Punjab state said that an inspector, who it identified as Gurinderjit Singh Nagra, had been linked “in connection with an extortion-related investigation” by US authorities.
It said Nagra had been taken off active duty pending investigations.
The international operation on Tuesday arrested 24 people and charged dozens, including two men in India who US officials say ran global criminal syndicates from inside prison.
It identified one of them as Lawrence Bishnoi, 33, who is jailed in India and has been convicted in several criminal cases while facing murder and extortion charges.
Among the crimes alleged in indictments unveiled on Tuesday is the 2023 killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Punjabi-born campaigner for “Khalistan” -- a separatist movement that seeks an independent homeland for Sikhs.
Bishnoi, whose organisation is designated a terrorist enterprise in Canada, is charged with ordering the killing from his cell.
