Leaked Audio: Goldy Brar Claims He Killed Hardeep Nijjar Over Drug Trafficking, Not on India's Orders

A leaked audio recording surfaced on social media Sunday, August 23, purportedly capturing gangster Satinderjeet Singh, better known as Goldy Brar, admitting he ordered the 2023 killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The clip was first posted by Canada-based journalist Ruchi Wali on X, according to Outlook India, which cited ANI's reporting.

In the recording, Brar is allegedly heard telling UK-based Khalistani figure Paramjit Singh Pamma that Nijjar was targeted for supporting drug networks that exploited teenagers. "Those who groomed and incited 16-to-17-year-olds to sell drugs... those who blackmailed young people into selling drugs and becoming informants... Nijjar supported and strengthened these individuals so that he could use them when necessary," Brar allegedly says, according to multiple outlets including NDTV, Moneycontrol and The Week India, all of whom appear to be working from the same reported transcript.

"That's why we, my team and I, had to kill Nijjar, because these people were using young people to sell drugs. Everyone has to face the consequences of their actions," Brar allegedly adds.

Outlook India additionally reported a line not carried by the other outlets, in which Brar allegedly disparages his former associate: "I am not a coward like Lawrence Bishnoi. I own up to my role. He did convince me to take this step." That detail matters because Bishnoi and Brar, once partners in a string of killings across India and abroad, reportedly split last year, according to NDTV.

None of this is verified. Business Standard, Moneycontrol and Outlook India all explicitly flag that the audio's authenticity has not been independently confirmed. Times of India reported that unnamed "intelligence sources" told the paper the voice matches Brar's, but that claim comes from anonymous sourcing, not a forensic authentication process anyone has publicly detailed.

The leak comes as Brar and Bishnoi already face a US federal indictment tied to Nijjar's murder, part of an FBI-led effort called Operation Hard Ball targeting the Bishnoi organized crime network, according to Outlook India. A federal arrest warrant for the case was issued July 1, 2026, by the US District Court for the Central District of California. The Times of India described the operation as a joint US-Canada crackdown that reframes Nijjar's killing as "a gangland hit rather than a state-sponsored killing."

Nijjar, who founded the Khalistan Tiger Force and was designated a terrorist by India's National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot dead June 18, 2023, in the parking lot of a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of a role in the killing weeks later, triggering the worst rupture in India-Canada relations in decades. India recalled diplomats and called the allegation "absurd" and "motivated," per NDTV.

That diplomatic freeze has been thawing since Trudeau left office. Mark Carney, now Canada's prime minister, met Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in Kananaskis in June 2025, and both countries have since named High Commissioners-designate, according to Moneycontrol.

Canadian investigators themselves got there first. In July 2026, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Lisa Moreland told reporters, "There's no evidence to suggest through this organised crime investigation and the charges and the indictment laid forward that Indian officials were charged or involved," according to NDTV, which cited PTI. That statement came from Canada's own police leadership, not from Indian officials or American prosecutors with an interest in the outcome.

An unverified audio clip released by an anonymous or semi-anonymous social media account in the middle of a live prosecution is exactly the kind of thing that can be staged, edited, or taken out of context. Trudeau's original allegation was itself never proven in court, and no source in this reporting shows Canadian or American investigators formally authenticating this specific recording. Wanting hard forensic verification before treating a gangster's boast as settled fact is reasonable.

The tape's claims track with the direction Canadian and American law enforcement were already heading, independent of whether the recording itself checks out. The RCMP's own findings, the US indictment naming Brar and Bishnoi specifically, and the FBI's Operation Hard Ball all point toward organized crime, not a state operation. That's a conclusion multiple official bodies reached before this audio ever leaked.

No outlet has reported an official Canadian government or RCMP response to the specific leaked recording, and the US prosecution against Brar and Bishnoi remains ongoing with no trial date reported in these sources. Brar remains a fugitive wanted in India for multiple killings, including that of singer Sidhu Moosewala, and has not been apprehended.