Canadian Police Charge Two For Gang Killings
NEW YORK, NY (IANS) – Two Indian men have been charged with the killing of two others in gang-related violence in Canada, according to police.
Gursimran Sahota, 24, and Tanvir Khakh, 20, were charged with first-degree murder on July 25, said Sergeant David Lee, Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.
They were arrested shortly after Meninder Dhaliwal and Satindera Gill were shot while in their car at the British Columbia resort of Whistler.
Three others were also arrested but the extent of their involvement in the incident is being investigated.
CityNews quoted Federal police investigators as saying that the shootings were linked to an ongoing gang conflict and the suspects and victims knew each other.
The killing of Dhaliwal and Gill happened 10 days after the unsolved killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, who had been acquitted of alleged charges of bombing Air India’s Boeing 747 Kanishka in 1985.
The two incidents had eerie similarities: They occurred in broad daylight while the victims were sitting in cars in public places and other cars were found ablaze nearby.
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 that according to sources, Sahota and Kakh belonged to a gang known as the “United Nations” which had been fighting with the Dhaliwal’s gang called the “Brothers Keeper”.
The newspaper daily said that 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 “Brother’s Keeper” member Jaskeert Kalkat, who was also killed in May 2021.
