Chandigarh: Punjab Police has brought back 17 gangsters from various countries over the past six months, Cabinet Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said at a press conference on Monday, saying the Bhagwant Mann government had sent a clear message that no criminal could escape the law by fleeing abroad. The figures are the minister's claims, made at his press conference; they have not been independently audited.

Source: Punjab E News, Nov 9, 2026

Cheema, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, said the extraditions and deportations were part of the 'Gangsters te Vaar' campaign. Between January 20 and November 7, he said, police conducted 1,61,266 raids and arrested around 2,162 proclaimed offenders.

Who Cheema said was brought back

Among those Cheema named were Ramanjit Singh Romi from Hong Kong, Amrit Singh from the Maldives, Prabhpreet Singh from Germany, Parminder Singh Pindi from the UAE, Sajjan Mahesh, Sukhdev Kumar and Manish Bedi from Indonesia, Ajay Singh, Pawandeep Singh and Jaspreet Singh from Malaysia, and Karambeer Singh Deol from Canada. The most recent single return reported before this press conference was gangster Gurwinder Singh Afridi, brought from Ethiopia on November 8 after a 10-month manhunt, which Awaaz Punjab reported separately.

"Punjab Police has succeeded in bringing back several gangsters to India from different countries," Cheema said. "These operations demonstrate the determination and capabilities of our police force in pursuing criminals beyond geographical boundaries." He said the government would build strong cases against those brought back and present solid evidence in court. "Our objective is clear: to make Punjab a gangster-free state," he said.

Cheema also alleged that gangsters were "created and nurtured during the Akali-BJP regime and allowed to flourish under the Congress government" — an allegation against the previous governments, which he made at the press conference.

BJP's counter: 'Central agencies did the work'

Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon replied the same day, accusing the AAP government of taking credit for bringing gangsters back from abroad. Fugitives hiding overseas are extradited and arrested through the Ministry of External Affairs, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Interpol and central security networks, Dhillon said, calling it "laughably absurd" that the minister was "beating drums" to claim credit for his party when central agencies and Indian diplomatic missions had done the work.

Source: The Punjab Standard, Nov 9, 2026

Dhillon turned Cheema's own list of the gangsters' alleged crimes — which he said included the murder of a 12-year-old child and of elected representatives — back on the government, saying the blame for those crimes lies with the AAP government and with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who also holds the Home portfolio, and that the government had failed to protect innocent lives.

Dhillon pointed to the killing of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa, who was shot dead inside a medical store in a busy market on October 13 while streaming on Facebook Live; the CBI has since taken over that case. "In the AAP government's 'Badlav', drug cartels, gangsters and extortionists operate with complete impunity, while anti-drug warriors like Parvinder Jhota have to pay with their lives," Dhillon said. He also alleged that under AAP rule Punjab's jails have become "five-star operational headquarters" for extortionists and gang bosses — an allegation the government has not responded to in this reporting.

The BJP asked the government to stop blaming others and holding what Dhillon called "scripted press conferences" to take credit, and to explain why traders, doctors and ordinary citizens are living in fear. The exchange comes with Punjab Assembly elections due in 2027, and law and order — gangsters, drugs and extortion — shaping up as a central campaign issue between the ruling AAP and the BJP.

Background: the 'Gangsters te Vaar' campaign

The 'Gangstran Te Vaar' campaign was launched on January 20, 2026, under DGP Gaurav Yadav, with district police teams working alongside the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF). At its 200-day mark in August, police figures put the campaign at 1,09,087 raids and 1,532 proclaimed offenders arrested — the baseline against which Cheema's updated January-to-November figures were announced on Monday.