Gangsters Himanshu Bhau and Neeraj Faridpuria held by US immigration in Las Vegas as India seeks their return

Two of Haryana’s most-wanted gangsters, Himanshu Bhau and Neeraj Faridpuria, are in the custody of US immigration authorities in Nevada, and Indian police are now trying to get them sent home.

The two men were detained in Las Vegas on 22 October by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), acting on intelligence from the Haryana Police’s Special Task Force. They are listed as held at the Henderson Detention Center, with their cases handled by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Las Vegas.

Haryana Police and the CBI, India’s nodal agency for Interpol, are working with US authorities on their deportation. Officials have cautioned that the return is not automatic. The route and timing will depend on US immigration proceedings, and no date has been set. US authorities have not said publicly what the two were held for.

Who is Himanshu Bhau

Bhau, from Ritoli village in Rohtak district, faces cases of murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and extortion and is on the most-wanted lists of Delhi and Haryana police. An Interpol Red Notice was issued against him in August 2023.

Police say he began his criminal career at 17, when he fired at a rival, and escaped from a juvenile home in Hisar in 2020. He is alleged to have left India on forged papers and to have run his gang from abroad, first from Portugal and then the US.

His gang has claimed a string of shootings in Delhi-NCR, among them the 2024 killing of a 26-year-old at a Burger King outlet in Rajouri Garden and the daylight murder of gym owner Vijay Kumar in Aya Nagar on 14 September this year. Police are also examining links to the firing outside YouTuber Elvish Yadav’s house in Gurugram. The gang is a rival of the Lawrence Bishnoi network.

Who is Neeraj Faridpuria

Faridpuria, from Faridpur village in Palwal district, faces more than 25 criminal cases in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case in 2015 but was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2019.

His name then surfaced in the killing of Congress leader Vikas Chaudhary, who was shot dead in Faridabad on 26 June 2019. Investigators say he fled to Canada through Dubai, was linked to the Bambiha gang, another Bishnoi rival, and later moved to the US, where he worked with Bhau’s network.

What happens next

The case tests how quickly India can bring back gangsters who run operations from overseas. A deportation on immigration grounds can be faster than formal extradition, but it rests entirely with US authorities. Until they decide, both men stay in Nevada while Haryana and Delhi police wait to question them in a long list of pending cases.