iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Two Indian-origin men have been charged with killing two others in a gang-related violence in Canada, police said on Monday.
Gursimran Sahota (24) and Tanvir Khakh (20) were charged with first-degree murder on Monday, said Sergeant David Lee, Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. Sahota and Khakh were arrested for allegedly killing Meninder Dhaliwal and Satindera Gill in their car on Sunday at the British Columbia resort village of Whistler.
In a statement issued Monday, Lee said both Dhaliwal and Gill were known to the police. “Meninder Dhaliwal was of several individuals identified by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU-BC) as posing a significant risk to public safety with connections to gangs,” he said.
Dhaliwal and Gill were murdered just 10 days after the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, who had been acquitted of charges of bombing Air India’s Boeing 747 Kanishka in 1985.
“This act was outrageous and shock to the visitors and community of Whistler” and the arrests “are thanks to the real-time information provided and the quick action of the First Responders,” Lee added in a statement on the arrests.
Three others were also arrested, but the extent of their involvement in the incident is being investigated, he said.
According to local media, Meninder Singh Dhaliwal and his brother Barinder were on the Vancouver Police Department’s list of six “gangsters” – four of them of Indian descent – who “pose a significant risk to the safety of the public”.
The Vancouver Sun said, quoting sources, that Sahota and Kakh belonged to a gang known as the ‘United Nations’ which had been fighting with Dhaliwal’s gang called ‘Brother’s Keepers’.
Another local media outlet City News quoted Federal police investigators as saying that the shootings were linked to an ongoing gang conflict and the suspects and victims knew each other.
According to local sources, Sahota had earlier been charged in three armed robberies of drug stores along with Karman Grewal, another ‘United Nations’ gang member.
Grewal was shot dead in May 2021 at Vancouver Airport in what is believed to be retaliation for the killing of Dhaliwal’s brother Barinder in April 2021, the Vancouver Sun added.
While Grewal’s murder remains unsolved, Meninder Dhaliwal was a suspect along with another ‘Brothers Keepers’ member Jaskeert Kalkat, who was also killed in May 2021.
Two Indian-origin men charged with gang-related killings in Canadian resort town
