iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
An Indian-origin man who was accused of killing his son’s in-laws was sentenced on Thursday, August 15, according to the Fresno County Superior Court in California.
He had shot Rajbir Kaur (62), and Ravinder Singh (59), residents of Fresno, at their home on Sept. 9, 2018, at around 11:30 a.m. and made criminal threats against their daughter.
Darshan Dhanjan, also a resident of Fresno, was sentenced to 77 years to life imprisonment in state prison by Judge Jane Cardoza of the Fresno County Superior Court after he pleaded guilty to all counts and aggravating factors on July 18, 2024.
The incident took place on September 9, 2018, around 11:23 am. Officers with the Fresno Police Department were dispatched to a residence regarding a shooting. Upon arrival, officers found two individuals unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds. Officers learned that Dhanjan shot and killed two members of his extended family as they sat watching television in their shared home.
Dhanjan later also threatened to kill their daughter when she discovered their bodies before leaving the residence. Fresno Police say that a family dispute ended with the deaths of the two people. Police officers were called to a home on the 5300 block of East Tower in Southeast Fresno before 11:30 a.m.
The couple’s daughter Jaldeep Kaur told dispatchers her parents had been shot. “It does not appear there as any struggle. Both husband and wife were seated on recliners when they were shot, perhaps even unexpectedly, without knowing what occurred,” said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. “The male victim in this case still had the remote control in his hand when he was shot and killed.”
Kaur told police her father-in-law shot the two. Her parents and in-laws live in the same home. Kaur had been upstairs with her young daughter when she heard gunshots. “She immediately came down the stairs and saw her husband’s dad, standing with a gun in his hand,” Dyer said. When she began to scream, the suspect pointed his gun at her and said he would kill her as well. Police say Kaur ran upstairs, grabbed her daughter, barricaded herself in a bedroom, and called 911.
Around the same time, police say her father-in-law, 65-year-old Darshan Singh Dhanjan called his wife and told her what he did. She called 9-1-1 too. An alert was issued for Dhanjan’s 2005 Toyota Prius and police officers pulled him over at Central and Temperance, five miles away. “He had blood on his hands,” Dyer said.
The family had surveillance cameras inside and outside the home. “We have this incident on video,” Dyer said. On reaching the crime scene, police say they found the two people unresponsive, having suffered gunshot wounds.
