When Edmonton police arrested Arshdeep Singh for shoplifting at West Edmonton Mall last November, they launched an investigation that ultimately put the young Indian national at the heart of a network believed responsible for the extortion crisis plaguing Canadian communities.

Singh’s phone held a cache of images and messages linking him to an arson in Ontario, a shooting in Edmonton, extortion cases in Surrey and auto theft and insurance fraud in the Lower Mainland, Alberta and Saskatchewan. 

There was even a photograph of Singh alongside the alleged “prime conspirator” behind a series of extortion-linked shootings at a Surrey café.

New names and new allegations

Details of those incidents and more are contained in a set of Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) transcripts of Singh’s detention and admissibility proceedings obtained by CBC News as part of an ongoing investigation into the extortion crisis.

At the time of his arrest, Singh — who came to Canada as a student in August 2022 — was living on a post-graduate work permit due to expire in April 2026.

He was deported after being found inadmissible to Canada last December due to organized criminality, one of dozens of suspects identified by Canada Border Services Agency officials who form part of a multi-jurisdictional extortion task force.

At his hearing, Singh denied wrongdoing, but didn’t fight deportation, and the evidence against him has not resulted in criminal charges beyond shoplifting.

But the immigration rulings — which require a lesser standard of proof than a criminal conviction — provide the clearest picture to date of the scale of the extortion problem facing Canadian authorities.

The transcripts draw connections between incidents and suspects that have not previously been made public by police. 

They list more than a dozen co-conspirators whose names have never appeared in the public record. 

And crucially, where CBSA and police have been tight-lipped, the public immigration process provides concrete details about a sprawling group of suspects moving between provinces with ease, carrying out arsons, extortions and vehicle fraud with seeming impunity.

‘I am not involved’

At a pre-hearing conference in mid-December, Singh told the Immigration and Refugee Board member overseeing his case he would accept a deportation order — but he was reluctant to see counsel for the Immigration Minister recount the list of allegations against him.

“I am really in depression deep, and my family is in depression back home, sir. My mother is in hospital due to all of these things. I’m really messed up, and I don’t want to go any further in these things,” Singh told the IRB’s Azeem Lalji.

“I am not involved in any of the extortion, arson, any fraud anywhere.”

But police investigations and the contents of Singh’s phone told another story.

According to the IRB transcripts, Singh was at the scene of an arson on a commercial business in Brant County, Ont., on Aug. 5, 2025, where he directed two assailants to place Molotov cocktails on the ground before instructing another to film the attack.

“You attempted to break the main door and window. Two others are seen pouring gasoline. You tell them to stop and come back,” the documents read.

“You then proceed to light the first Molotov cocktail and throw it at the building starting the fire. You are then seen fleeing, carrying one of the jerry cans.”

A little more than a week later, Singh was in Edmonton — part of a group of people recorded at a scene where five shots from a handgun were fired into the air.

The IRB documents name seven other suspects seen alongside Singh at that incident in videos found on his phone; they have allegedly been investigated through Project Gaslight, an Edmonton Police investigation into extortion and arson of South Asian businesses in Alberta.

Relationship with ‘high profile’ suspect

Immigration counsel Kelsie Peter claimed shell casings from the shooting in Edmonton in August would later prove to be a match for those recovered at an extortion-related shooting that happened in Surrey in May — three months earlier.

At the end of October, Singh was in British Columbia, “subject to a Surrey traffic stop which was also linked to a residential shooting.”

According to Immigration documents, he was one of four people in a Dodge Durango pulled over for speeding on Oct. 29. The three other occupants of the vehicle were arrested in relation to an extortion-related shooting the following day.

Peter also said Singh spoke briefly to police about his “personal relationship with Mr. Bandhu Maan Singh Sekhon” after police found video of the two men together along with another individual who has also been declared inadmissible to Canada for criminal activity.

According to police in Delhi, where Sekhon was arrested in India in November, Sekhon fled Canada after the arrest of several associates as part of an extortion-related crackdown. He’s accused of masterminding three shootings at Kap’s Café in Surrey.

The immigration documents say Sekhon is a “high profile person of interest in relation to the ongoing extortion investigation and has been linked to Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi gangs.”

‘This group had structure and continuity’

Beyond the extortion-related incidents, Singh’s admissibility hearing also dealt with his alleged involvement in auto theft and vehicle insurance fraud in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Singh allegedly used his cell phone to send pictures and locations of vehicles including a Dodge Challenger and a Toyota Highlander which were stolen from specific addresses included in the messages hours after they were sent.

The transcript says police obtained a video from Singh’s phone in which he “and associates are burning a white Jeep Grand Cherokee in Fraser Valley, B.C. This vehicle has been linked to vehicle insurance fraud investigation.”

In deciding Singh was inadmissible to Canada, Lalji found he was part of a group involved in a form of fraud known as “re-vinning” — where suspects replace a vehicle identification number (or VIN) from a stolen car with a clean VIN taken from another vehicle to disguise a theft.

Even the vehicle tied to Singh and his associates at West Edmonton Mall appeared to have been suspect: it was linked to a Chilliwack RCMP file involving a car that was damaged, repaired and “fraudulently re-vinned” — but never reported stolen.

“You planned these frauds over social media platforms with numerous other people exchanging photos of the vehicles, the insurance papers, the registration documents and license plates. You negotiated dates and prices. You discussed reporting or not reporting the vehicles as being stolen,” Lalji told Singh before declaring him inadmissible.

“You were seen on film burning one of the vehicles and you were also seen instructing someone else to burn a vehicle. This group had structure and continuity. This group of people that is. There was an organized method of committing these frauds.”

‘He might be in a difficult situation’

According to the CBSA, Singh is one of 10 suspects deported following extortion-related investigations into nearly 300 foreign nationals that have resulted in a total of 32 removal orders.

Nine more people are awaiting admissibility hearings. But the public’s ability to see inside the immigration proceedings has been hampered by the fact that a significant number of those suspects have claimed refugee status.

Refugee hearings are automatically held in private, whereas IRB detention reviews and admissibility hearings are open to the public barring an application to shield the proceedings from public view.

The IRB transcripts highlight the relationship between criminal justice and immigration enforcement when it comes to dealing with extortion and public safety considerations.

A criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the standard for prosecutors to approve charges is a substantial likelihood of conviction.

The bar for immigration inadmissibility, by contrast, is “reasonable grounds to believe.”

Peter said Singh’s case was “unusual” because he was “seemingly eager to concede the allegations” that would see him returned to India as soon as possible.

But in an interview with the CBSA, Singh disagreed with any suggestion of more serious crimes.

“I think he might be in a difficult situation because he doesn’t want to admit to certain things but he does want the removal order that comes with admitting certain things,” Peter said.

‘I just want it done as soon as possible’

Singh represented himself at his admissibility hearing, but had a lawyer at the last proceeding for which CBC News obtained records, a 30-day detention review on Dec. 30.

His lawyer — Marvin Klassen — told the Immigration and Refugee Board tribunal member overseeing that hearing that his client “wanted to make it clear that he has not been charged with anything in relation to using firearms or extortion.”

“Unless some new charges are coming forward that he’s not yet aware of, those items have not been proved in court,” Klassen said.

But the allegations were enough to have Singh found inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, ordered removed from the country and then held in detention pending deportation as a danger to the public.

According to the IRB documents, Singh was charged in Edmonton and Calgary with shoplifting and assault, but Peter said the officials were working with the Crown to stay charges against him in order to expedite removal from Canada.

It is unclear whether Singh has been removed from Canada. The CBSA did not provide a comment on his status.

At one of his hearings, Singh said he had grown depressed in detention and saw “no future” for himself in Canada. He wanted to be deported.

“I just want it done as soon as possible, sir. My family is not good back home, sir. My mother is in hospital, all of these things,” He told Lalji.

“In here it is really depressing.”