Chandigarh: Punjab Police have secured the extradition of fugitive criminal Amritpal Singh alias Amrit Dalam, a key operative of the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang and an accused in the murders of at least seven people, from Moldova, the force’s first extradition from a European country.The state police’s Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) and Overseas Fugitive Tracking and Extradition Cell (OFTEC) secured the extradition with the assistance of central agencies, Punjab director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said on Saturday.Dalam is wanted in cases of murder, attempt to murder, offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Arms Act and narcotic offences, the DGP said.Moldovan authorities detained him on Feb 24, 2026, while he was attempting to cross a state border into Ukraine. The extradition process was subsequently initiated through OFTEC. The Chisinau court granted his extradition on May 26, while his appeal was rejected by Moldova’s Court of Appeal Centru on July 16, making the order final.Yadav said a four-member Punjab Police team, led by AGTF SP Bikramjit Singh Brar, went to Moldova to bring him back. The team took Dalam into custody at Chisinau airport on Friday and arrived with him at IGI Airport in New Delhi on Saturday morning.“This is our first extradition from a European country, a milestone in our fight against organised crime,” Yadav said. He said the operation marked the culmination of ‘Operation Eastern Reach’, a six-month intelligence-led international manhunt involving surveillance, intelligence gathering and coordination with national and international agencies.AGTF additional DGP Promod Ban said Dalam was wanted in the murder of Dalbir Singh in Batala in 2019; the double murder of Amrjeet Lal and Kashmiri Lal in Hoshiarpur in 2024; the murder of Dharamjit Singh alias Dharma in 2025; the double murder of Kanav Mahajan and Sarabjit Singh alias Kaka in 2025; and the murder of Jasdeep Singh alias Deep Cheema in 2025.Dalam fled abroad in Oct 2024 using a fake passport prepared with the particulars of Gurpal, son of Hira Singh, a resident of Kurukshetra, Haryana, Ban said.Dalam’s movements were tracked across multiple countries while he was on the run, Ban said. Punjab Police had issued a red-corner notice against him and shared inputs about his fake passport and whereabouts with central agencies, which subsequently led to his extradition.Punjab counter-intelligence inspector general of police Ashish Choudhary said nine high-priority fugitives had been deported since OFTEC was established. This is the second successful extradition request this year, he said. Earlier, Amritpal Singh Mehron, accused of murdering a social media influencer, was extradited from the UAE.
