Abjeet Kingra came to Canada with big hopes. His parents in India had sacrificed to get him a student visa so he could pursue a degree, a job and permanent residence.
Instead, he became a foot soldier of the Bishnoi gang, the India-based crime group that has become such a menace that Canada recently branded it a terrorist organization.
On Sept. 2, 2024, Kingra and an accomplice drove up a cul-de-sac on southern Vancouver Island and parked near the home of the gang’s latest target.
Wearing a balaclava, his partner emptied the contents of a plastic jerry can onto a Dodge Ram and Volkswagen Beetle parked in the driveway.
A security camera recorded the flames erupting from the vehicles as Kingra aimed a handgun at the house, fired off 14 shots and fled into the waiting car.
“I choose wrong way to support my family,” Kingra later wrote in a handwritten apology penned in faltering English.
“I feel sorry for my actions and I am very ashamed.”
The order to shoot up the house near B.C.’s capital came from the gang headed by Lawrence Bishnoi, who calls himself an Indian nationalist and patriot.
Despite being locked in an Indian prison since 2015, Bishnoi oversees a criminal enterprise responsible for a rash of threats, arsons and murders in Canada.
Police in B.C. and Ontario have formed extortion task forces to tackle the surge in Bishnoi violence — some of it orchestrated by the Indian government, according to the RCMP.
Two weeks ago, the federal government elevated the Bishnoi gang to the status of national security risk, placing it on Canada’s list of terrorist entities.
The gang members carrying out this violence are young, come from India’s Punjab, where unemployment is endemic, and are often in Canada on temporary visas.
But amid a nationwide crackdown, they are increasingly being brought before Canada’s courts to end up like the Indian gangster they report to: behind bars.
A 26-year-old Indian citizen, Kingra arrived in Canada almost five years ago but struggled in school and on the job market, according to court documents.
In May 2024, he started work at a Winnipeg moving company, whose boss had nothing but praise for him.
“He was one of the reliable employees,” he said.
A few months into the job, Kingra requested time off, stating he had work to attend to in B.C., according to the former employer, who requested anonymity.
Kingra had taken a contract with a more lucrative organization: the Bishnoi gang. He said he felt pressure to support his family in India, and this was easy money.
On Aug. 10, 2024, he and Vikram Sharma allegedly fired shots at a Surrey home and tried to set it on fire, according to RCMP allegations.
The victim had received extortion threats, police said. The incident came amid a plague of similar incidents that had spread fear in South Asian communities.
Just over three weeks later, Kingra and Sharma struck again, this time in Colwood, B.C., at the home of a popular a Punjabi singer.
Crime scene photos show where the bullets came through the front windows and into the living room, where the rapper kept a guitar and amp.
The slugs flew past a couch that faced a big screen TV, shattered a glass railing and embedded in the drywall. The occupant was unharmed.
To make it clear that nobody should doubt their propensity for violence, footage from a body cam worn by Kingra was later posted on social media.
As they were fleeing the scene, police stopped them.
The officer who pulled them over quickly realized they were involved in the arson and tried to arrest them.
But he was working alone, and when he tried to detain them at gunpoint, they raced off, crashed their vehicle and made their way to Ontario.
According to the judge who presided over Kingra’s case, the victim’s transgression was to make a music video with someone who had run afoul of Bishnoi.
Kingra’s job was to “terrorize” the victim “at the behest of a criminal organization known as the Bishnoi gang, operating out of India, among other places,” the judge wrote
The Vancouver Island shooting was still under investigation when the RCMP held an extraordinary news conference on Oct. 14, 2024.
RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme told reporters that police had linked a series of homicides, extortions and other crimes to Indian government agents.
As a result, police had warned more than a dozen Canadians, many of them “members of the pro-Khalistan movement,” that their lives were at risk, he said.
“The Indian government’s mode of operating starts with the collection of information on Canada-based individuals through diplomats and consular officials in Canada,” national security adviser Nathalie Drouin testified on Oct. 29.
“This information is shared with senior levels of the Indian government, who then direct the commission of serious criminal activities against Indo-Canadians through the kinetic use of Lawrence Bishnoi’s organized crime network.”
Canada expelled six Indian diplomats in response, and on Sept. 29, the government listed Bishnoi as a terrorist group, citing its murders, shootings and arsons.
“The Bishnoi gang creates a climate of insecurity for Canadians in diaspora communities as it targets them, their prominent community members, their businesses, as well as cultural figures within the community,” Public Safety Canada said.
The day after the terror listing, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand met with her Indian counterpart at the United Nations in New York.
Her statement on the encounter mentioned trade, economic prosperity, security and global governance, but made no mention of India’s role in violence in Canada.
Anand was scheduled to visit India this week.
Canadian Sikh groups are concerned that Carney has put aside their security concerns as he seeks closer trade ties with India amid the White House trade war.
Police in Ontario arrested Kingra on Oct. 30, 2024, for the Vancouver Island attack. Sharma returned to India before he could be arrested and remains a wanted man.
The arrest shocked those who knew Kingra — or thought they did. His former boss said he had not seen any signs Kingra was involved in gang activity.
His girlfriend was also taken aback, she said.
“I have been in a relationship with him since September 2024,” she wrote in her letter to the judge hearing Kingra’s case.
“And in all that time I have never seen any behavior, temperament or attitude that would suggest he could be involved in something like this.”
“Friends, family and community members would describe him as a very calm, loving and hard working person,” she wrote in her letter.
At the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre, where he awaited trial, records depicted him as quiet and well-behaved with staff and fellow inmates.
He hung out in the common area playing chess, and phoned his girlfriend in the evenings, according to prison records, which characterized him as “polite in all interactions.”
He earned certificates in kitchen training and socialization. “While I am here I try to learn new good things, behave good, working on myself,” he wrote.
Kingra pleaded guilty on Aug. 15, 2025 and was sentenced to six years. The judge found that he was acting on the instructions of the Bishnoi gang.
His crimes were “highly dangerous and brazen,” the judge wrote, and showed “a complete indifference to the norms and values of civil society.”
The RCMP declined to comment, as did Kingra’s lawyer Sophie Saran. Kingra is still awaiting trial for the extortion in Surrey.
He also faces deportation after serving his sentence.
“I did a horrible and terrifying thing,” he wrote in his apology letter. “This is a big mistake that not only scared victims & his family but the community too.
“I take full responsibility of my actions. I not making any excuses and promise myself that I will change my bad image and will do good for the society & live peaceful and positive life after this experience.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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