Baltej Singh, the New Zealand businessman and nephew of one of Indira Gandhi’s killers who is serving a 22-year prison sentence in New Zealand for masterminding one of the country’s largest methamphetamine importations, has lost a legal bid to keep his name banned. His identity was revealed on Saturday by New Zealand media outlet Stuff after the courts overturned name suppression orders granted over concerns his family’s notoriety among Sikhs and Hindus around the world could put them in harm’s way.
In an affidavit submitted to the court, Singh’s father had previously told a New Zealand court that the family faced threats, intimidation and hostility after the assassination made them “notorious” among Sikh and Hindu communities around the world, Stuff reported.
The court initially accepted these concerns, ruling that the risk to the safety of Singh’s relatives outweighed the public interest in open justice. But the New Zealand government appealed the ruling, and in November the court overturned the order, finding there was a “significant public interest” in identifying the man responsible for importing an unprecedented amount of drugs into New Zealand. The judges said that anyone with a vindictive motive linked to the 1984 assassination would likely already know Singh’s identity, and they assessed that the risk of harm from revealing his name was very low, Stuff reported.
Singh initially sought to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court but later abandoned that effort, Stuff reported.
New Zealand authorities say Singh played a central role in an international drug trafficking network that concealed methamphetamine inside beverage-branded commercial shipments.
In 2021, cans of coconut water arriving in New Zealand from New Delhi were found to contain dissolved methamphetamine and ephedrine, a precursor chemical used to manufacture the drug, Stuff reported.
In 2022, containers arriving in New Zealand from Canada and the United States carried tens of thousands of Honey Beer cans and kombucha bottles. Police later discovered that the drinks were being used to transport liquid methamphetamine into the country.
The drugs were sent to an industrial unit where they were converted into crystal meth. Police have seized more than 700 kilograms of liquid and crystalline methamphetamine, the largest amount ever discovered in New Zealand.
The operation came to light after one of the beer cans was mistakenly given to a 21-year-old man by one of Singh’s aides, Hematjit Singh Kahlon, who was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Days after the victim was taken to hospital, police arrested Baltej Singh at Auckland International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Dubai.
