Indian gangs terrorize diaspora

Last fall, Harsimran Singh was well on his way to bringing 15,000 fans to Stockton for an international tournament of the ancient Indian sport kabaddi.

- By GAGANDEEP SINGH

HARSIMRAN SINGH learned players had been intimidated into dropping out of his Stockton sporting event.

(LARRY VALENZUELA CalMatters)

Then, suddenly, athletes started dropping out.

They seemed to manufacture excuses to avoid the sport's world cup. As president of the American Kabaddi Federation, Singh felt increasingly shaken as the cancellations mounted. He began pressing for answers.

He learned from athletes, and then from law enforcement officers, that someone was threatening players to shape the outcome of the event. They received phone calls from gangsters, many of them incarcerated in Indian prisons, who directed them not to participate, and warned of consequences if they defied the orders.

“The players were very afraid; if they got a call, they didn’t want to go against gangsters. They were unwilling to play because they didn’t want to compromise their own safety and their family's security,” Singh said.

The intimidation of Singh's tournament was not an isolated incident. It was, as he would come to understand, part of a much larger wave of international threats, extortion and violence targeting Indian and Punjabi Sikhs in California.

The method is straightforward: A gang member calls a victim and demands money. If they refuse, a criminal network threatens or carries out attacks against their relatives, families, or businesses — whether in the United States or back in India.

More than 250,000 Sikhs live in California, the largest population in the U.S. Like other members of the diaspora, they retain strong ties to India, with many regularly traveling to visit their families or ancestral homes.

California law enforcement agencies say the combination of wealth, tight relationships and cross-border movement has made them attractive targets for criminal networks with roots in India’s northern and western states — Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi and Rajasthan.