Abjeet Kingra got here to Canada with large hopes. His dad and mom in India had sacrificed to get him a pupil visa so he might pursue a level, a job and everlasting residence.
As an alternative, he grew to become a foot soldier of the Bishnoi gang, the India-based crime group that has turn out to be such a menace that Canada not too long ago branded it a terrorist group.
On Sept. 2, 2024, Kingra and an confederate drove up a cul-de-sac on southern Vancouver Island and parked close to the house of the gang’s newest goal.
Sporting a balaclava, his accomplice emptied the contents of a plastic jerry can onto a Dodge Ram and Volkswagen Beetle parked within the driveway.
A safety digicam recorded the flames erupting from the autos as Kingra aimed a handgun on the home, fired off 14 pictures and fled into the ready automotive.
“I select flawed option to help my household,” Kingra later wrote in a handwritten apology penned in faltering English.
“I really feel sorry for my actions and I’m very ashamed.”
Crime scene photograph exhibits bullet gap in window of dwelling focused by Bishnoi gang foot soldier Abjeet Kingra, Sept. 2, 2024.
B.C. courtroom
The order to shoot up the home close to B.C.’s capital got here from the gang headed by Lawrence Bishnoi, who calls himself an Indian nationalist and patriot.
Regardless of being locked in an Indian jail since 2015, Bishnoi oversees a legal enterprise liable for a rash of threats, arsons and murders in Canada.
Police in B.C. and Ontario have fashioned extortion job forces to deal with the surge in Bishnoi violence — a few of it orchestrated by the Indian authorities, in line with the RCMP.
Two weeks in the past, the federal authorities elevated the Bishnoi gang to the standing of nationwide safety danger, inserting it on Canada’s list of terrorist entities.
The gang members finishing up this violence are younger, come from India’s Punjab, the place unemployment is endemic, and are sometimes in Canada on momentary visas.
However amid a nationwide crackdown, they’re more and more being introduced earlier than Canada’s courts to finish up just like the Indian gangster they report back to: behind bars.
Safety digicam footage allegedly exhibits Vikram Sharma, Bishnoi gang confederate of Abjeet Kingra, pouring gasoline on autos, Sept. 2 2024.
B.C. courtroom
A 26-year-old Indian citizen, Kingra arrived in Canada nearly 5 years in the past however struggled in class and on the job market, in line with courtroom paperwork.
In Might 2024, he began work at a Winnipeg shifting firm, whose boss had nothing however reward for him.
“He was one of many dependable workers,” he stated.
Just a few months into the job, Kingra requested day off, stating he had work to take care of in B.C., in line with the previous employer, who requested anonymity.
Kingra had taken a contract with a extra profitable group: the Bishnoi gang. He stated he felt strain to help his household in India, and this was simple cash.
On Aug. 10, 2024, he and Vikram Sharma allegedly fired pictures at a Surrey dwelling and tried to set it on hearth, in line with RCMP allegations.
The sufferer had acquired extortion threats, police stated. The incident got here amid a plague of comparable incidents that had unfold concern in South Asian communities.
Simply over three weeks later, Kingra and Sharma struck once more, this time in Colwood, B.C., on the dwelling of a common a Punjabi singer.
Crime scene pictures present the place the bullets got here by means of the entrance home windows and into the lounge, the place the rapper stored a guitar and amp.
The slugs flew previous a sofa that confronted an enormous display TV, shattered a glass railing and embedded within the drywall. The occupant was unhurt.
To make it clear that no person ought to doubt their propensity for violence, footage from a physique cam worn by Kingra was later posted on social media.
Picture from physique got here video taken by Abjeet Kingra as he shot at dwelling in Colwood, B.C., Sept. 2., 2024.
B.C. courtroom
As they have been fleeing the scene, police stopped them.
The officer who pulled them over shortly realized they have been concerned within the arson and tried to arrest them.
However he was working alone, and when he tried to detain them at gunpoint, they raced off, crashed their automobile and made their option to Ontario.
In line with the decide who presided over Kingra’s case, the sufferer’s transgression was to make a music video with somebody who had run afoul of Bishnoi.
Kingra’s job was to “terrorize” the sufferer “on the behest of a legal group often known as the Bishnoi gang, working out of India, amongst different locations,” the decide wrote
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, left, speaks at information convention with Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin, proper, RCMP Nationwide Headquarters, Ottawa, Oct. 14, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang.
The Vancouver Island taking pictures was nonetheless beneath investigation when the RCMP held a rare information convention on Oct. 14, 2024.
RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme told reporters that police had linked a collection of homicides, extortions and different crimes to Indian authorities brokers.
In consequence, police had warned greater than a dozen Canadians, lots of them “members of the pro-Khalistan motion,” that their lives have been in danger, he stated.
“The Indian authorities’s mode of working begins with the gathering of knowledge on Canada-based people by means of diplomats and consular officers in Canada,” nationwide safety adviser Nathalie Drouin testified on Oct. 29.
“This data is shared with senior ranges of the Indian authorities, who then direct the fee of significant legal actions towards Indo-Canadians by means of the kinetic use of Lawrence Bishnoi’s organized crime community.”
Canada expelled six Indian diplomats in response, and on Sept. 29, the federal government listed Bishnoi as a terrorist group, citing its murders, shootings and arsons.
“The Bishnoi gang creates a local weather of insecurity for Canadians in diaspora communities because it targets them, their distinguished neighborhood members, their companies, in addition to cultural figures throughout the neighborhood,” Public Security Canada stated.
The day after the fear itemizing, International Affairs Minister Anita Anand met together with her Indian counterpart on the United Nations in New York.
Her assertion on the encounter talked about commerce, financial prosperity, safety and world governance, however made no point out of India’s function in violence in Canada.
Anand was scheduled to go to India this week.
Canadian Sikh teams are involved that Carney has put apart their safety considerations as he seeks nearer commerce ties with India amid the White Home commerce battle.
Crime scene photograph exhibits bullet holes in dwelling of Bishnoi goal, Colwood, B.C., Sept. 2, 2024.
B.C. courtroom
Police in Ontario arrested Kingra on Oct. 30, 2024, for the Vancouver Island assault. Sharma returned to India earlier than he may very well be arrested and stays a wished man.
The arrest shocked those that knew Kingra — or thought they did. His former boss stated he had not seen any indicators Kingra was concerned in gang exercise.
His girlfriend was additionally bowled over, she stated.
“I’ve been in a relationship with him since September 2024,” she wrote in her letter to the decide listening to Kingra’s case.
“And in all that point I’ve by no means seen any habits, temperament or perspective that will recommend he may very well be concerned in one thing like this.”
“Mates, household and neighborhood members would describe him as a really calm, loving and onerous working individual,” she wrote in her letter.
On the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre, the place he awaited trial, information depicted him as quiet and well-behaved with employees and fellow inmates.
He frolicked within the widespread space enjoying chess, and phoned his girlfriend within the evenings, in line with jail information, which characterised him as “well mannered in all interactions.”
He earned certificates in kitchen coaching and socialization. “Whereas I’m right here I attempt to study new good issues, behave good, engaged on myself,” he wrote.
Kingra pleaded responsible on Aug. 15, 2025 and was sentenced to six years. The decide discovered that he was performing on the directions of the Bishnoi gang.
His crimes have been “extremely harmful and brazen,” the decide wrote, and confirmed “an entire indifference to the norms and values of civil society.”
RCMP wished poster for Vikram Sharma, who has allegedly fled to India.
RCMP
The RCMP declined to remark, as did Kingra’s lawyer Sophie Saran. Kingra remains to be awaiting trial for the extortion in Surrey.
He additionally faces deportation after serving his sentence.
“I did a horrible and terrifying factor,” he wrote in his apology letter. “It is a large mistake that not solely scared victims & his household however the neighborhood too.
“I take full duty of my actions. I not making any excuses and promise myself that I’ll change my dangerous picture and can do good for the society & stay peaceable and constructive life after this expertise.”
