Deportation hearing for Indian extortion suspect halted when officials can’t find him

The deportation of a Bishnoi extortion gang member was put off on Thursday after federal officials could not find the suspect.

Just minutes into Abjeet Kingra’s deportation hearing, the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) said it had lost track of the Indian citizen.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which is attempting to deport Kingra, also said it no longer knew his whereabouts.

“Without knowing where he is, there’s not much else we can do,” Azeem Lalji, the IRB member overseeing the case, said before shutting down the hearing.

The B.C. court, however, confirmed to Global News that Kingra remained in custody, awaiting trial for a shooting and arson at a Surrey home.

The Bishnoi gang is an India-based crime group behind a wave of extortion violence targeting Canadian cities with large South Asian populations.

It is a listed terrorist group in Canada, which blames it for murders, shootings and arsons targeting prominent South Asian community members, businesses and cultural figures.

Kingra is one of the first Bishnoi members to face a deportation hearing amid a crackdown against extortion in B.C., Alberta and Ontario.

But as the case was set to begin on Thursday morning, he was not present. The IRB said it thought he was detained at the Pacific Institution in Abbotsford, B.C.

When the jail staff did not bring him to his virtual hearing, the IRB said it had just learned that he had been moved but did not his new location.

The IRB member said the proceedings would resume “in the very near future.” The CBSA said it would try to find out where he was now held.

Neither the IRB nor CBSA responded to questions about the matter by deadline. The B.C. government referred questions to the federal government.

1:53
Surrey extortion shootings spike

Border officials are investigating 372 foreign citizens identified through B.C.’s extortion task force, the CBSA said on Thursday.

Removal orders have been issued for 70 of them. Thirty-five have already been removed from Canada, the CBSA said. The figures are as of March 12, 2026.

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But a handful have also been sent to the Immigration and Refugee Board for deportation hearings, alleging they are inadmissible to Canada.

Global News has learned that Kingra is facing deportation for allegedly being a member of a criminal organization.

Like many of those implicated in the extortion crisis, Kingra entered Canada on a student visa. He worked for a moving company in Winnipeg.

But he was allegedly recruited into the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, a crime group based in India that makes money by extorting victims in Canada.

Last August, Kingra pleaded guilty to shooting the Vancouver Island home of Punjabi singer AP Dhillon. He also set fire to the victim’s cars.

A security camera recorded flames erupting from the vehicles as Kingra aimed a handgun at the house, fired off 14 shots and fled into the waiting car.

The Bishnoi gang took responsibility for the attack.

1:53
Indian crime group Bishnoi Gang’s foot soldier sentenced in Canada

“Your goal and your intent was essentially to terrorize Mr. Dhillon at the behest of a criminal organization known as the Bishnoi gang,” the judge wrote at sentencing.

“Mr. Dhillon’s apparent transgression was to have included an individual in one of his music videos who had himself fallen afoul of this organization.”

Kingra was sentenced to six years.

“I choose wrong way to support my family,” Kingra later wrote in a handwritten apology he addressed “to the victim and community.”

“I feel sorry for my actions and I am very ashamed.”

But last October, he was charged over another incident. According to the charges, he shot at and set fire to a home in Surrey on Aug. 10, 2024.

He is due in Surrey court on April 21. His alleged accomplice, Vikram Sharma, allegedly fled to India before he could be arrested and remains wanted.

2:22
Canadian-born Sikh activist speaks publicly about assassination threats

The RCMP has accused the Bishnoi gang of working for the government of India to kill Sikh activists, among them B.C. temple leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar was gunned down in the parking lot of his Surrey, B.C. temple in 2023. Four suspects allegedly tied to the Bishnoi gang face murder charges.

Canadian national security agencies believe the killing was ordered by the Indian government, which set out to kill opponents abroad in 2022.

But while Ottawa expelled Indian diplomats in 2024 over their alleged role in violence in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney has worked to rebuild ties.

Canadian Sikh organizations have accused Carney of disregarding their security as he seeks closer trade ties with India to offset a White House trade war.

At the same time, the extortion campaign waged by the Bishnoi gang and others like it have spread fear in South Asian communities.

Since the bulk of extortion gang members are from foreign nations, the CBSA has played an increasing role in the fight against the crimes.

It has been working with the B.C. Extortion Task Force and Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team in Edmonton and Calgary, as well as police in Ontario.

“When police identify individuals who may be in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, they notify the CBSA who conducts investigations that may lead to immigration enforcement action, including removal from Canada,” the agency said in a statement last month.

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca

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