Abjeet Singh Kingra, convicted for his involvement in an extortion attack on Punjabi singer AP Dhillon, testified that the Bishnoi gang has threatened his life and family if he returns to India.
An Indian national convicted for his role in the September 2024 extortion-linked attack on Punjabi singer AP Dhillon’s residence in Canada has claimed that the notorious Bishnoi gang has threatened to kill him if he is deported back to India. Appearing via video link from a British Columbia prison during an Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) hearing on Thursday, 26-year-old Abjeet Singh Kingra alleged that gang members have also been targeting his family in India, CBC reported.
“I got the news that this gang was threatening my family in India, and they said if I went back they would kill me,” said Kingra. “As I’m not a member of their gang — they’re thinking that I’m helping the police here as I was the first one that was arrested.”
Kingra, who is serving a six-year sentence for arson and firearms offences, said the gang now views him as a potential police informant because he was the first suspect arrested in connection with the attack.
His testimony came during an admissibility hearing to determine whether he should be removed from Canada on grounds of organised criminality, shedding fresh light on the violent assault that saw vehicles set ablaze and multiple gunshots fired at Dhillon’s Victoria-area home.
‘Didn’t realise Bishnoi gang was involved’
This is the first time that Kingra, who has been serving his time at Mission Institution since pleading guilty, spoke publicly at length about his role in the attack. According to him, he didn’t realise the Bishnoi gang was involved until he saw the video he filmed of himself firing the gun turn up on social media.
“Even I was surprised that it was everywhere on the news channel in the morning,” CBC reported him as saying. “If I would have known earlier that Bishnoi gang is involved in it and it would have been that serious — extortion and all that — I would have [refused] at that point.”
He also claimed holding his admissibility hearing in public puts himself and his family at risk, but the IRB member overseeing the tribunal rejected his bid to make the proceedings private.
“My family was already getting threatened, and now it would be 100 per cent for them because the things will be out in the media,” Kingra said.
“And if I went to India — definitely — they would kill me.”
Kingra was reportedly offered $4,000 for the attack, but said he was told Dhillon’s house would be empty. According to court records, although Dhillon was not home, the musician’s roommate narrowly missed injury or death.
Canada listed the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist entity last year, claiming that “specific communities have been targeted for terror, violence and intimidation.”
