Three Bambiha gang fugitives held in Malaysia, deported to India

Indian agencies have brought back three absconding gangsters linked to the Bambiha Gang apprehended in Malaysia. In a social media post, Home Minister Amit Shah said that the men named Jaspreet Singh, Ajay Singh, and Pawandeep Singh have been brought back to India and sent to police custody. The accused are involved in multiple crimes, including extortion, cross-border arms and narco-trafficking, and a foiled grenade attack in Ludhiana. Shah said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the agencies have facilitated the deportation of 51 hardened criminals in 2026 reflecting the vision of a safe and secure India.

Indian agencies got three absconding Indian gangsters apprehended in Malaysia, deported them to India, and sent them to police custody. The fugitives, namely Jaspreet Singh, Ajay Singh, and Pawandeep Singh, are linked to the Bambiha Gang and are accused of multiple crimes,…

— गृहमंत्री कार्यालय, HMO India (@HMOIndia) August 24, 2026

To intensify the crackdown on fugitives, PM Modi enacted the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act in 2018. The country has developed an integrated, intelligence-based, and technology-driven model against fugitives, paving the way for stricter measures against them and facilitating their return to India. Prior to 2014, the extradition framework had become outdated, and there were extradition treaties only with 37 countries. The dedicated law to deal with economic fugitives or to confiscate their assets was also missing, while during 2004 and 2013, the country had only secured the extradition of only four fugitives per year on average, while 110 extradition requests remained pending.
The Bambiha gang has expanded well beyond its original base in Punjab, with investigators earlier mapping an inter-state network of around 100 members and associates operating across Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan. The network’s expansion also allowed it to operate across state and international borders, with extortion emerging as an important source of funding for the wider gang alliance. Investigators had found that associates based in countries including Canada and the US were involved in coordinating activities from abroad. Punjab Police’s Overseas Fugitive Tracking and Extradition Cell (OFTEC), along with central agencies, had tracked the suspects’ movements for months before their detention and deportation from Malaysia.