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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Canada’s justice department is fighting to prevent “sensitive” national security information from emerging at the upcoming murder trial of four Indian men accused of gunning down a B.C. Sikh leader in 2023.

In an application to the Federal Court, lawyers representing the Attorney General of Canada asked for permission to withhold some evidence at the prosecution of the alleged killers of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Court documents released to Global News do not specify which details they are seeking to keep confidential, but they argued that releasing them “would be injurious to international relations and national security.”

The case against the suspected killers of the Sikh temple president is being closely watched because of allegations the government of India ordered the murder as part of a campaign to silence its political opponents abroad.

The claims, first made public in September 2023 by then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, set off a diplomatic rift between Canada and India. Ottawa later expel Indian diplomats and consular officials from the country.

Since taking office, Prime Minister Mark Carney has reengaged with India and sought to expand trade relations. Canadian Sikhs have called that a betrayal, given India’s alleged targeting of them.

It is not unusual for federal lawyers to ask a judge to allow them to refrain from disclosing national security information in trials. Often, it occurs when the information in question was provided by a foreign agency.

“In Canada, the Attorney General has the power to apply to the Federal Court for an order to, in essence, protect certain types of information from being released publicly and to the defence,” said University of Calgary law professor Michael Nesbitt.

“Such applications are neither unusual nor uncommon, and are governed by law and court oversight, while the defence has the opportunity to challenge the application,” said Nesbitt, a leading national security law expert.

“We see this sort of application a lot in the anti-terrorism and national security realm, but often also with respect to cases where it is necessary to protect information associated with undercover operators, informants, or information received from Canada’s allies where such international cooperation has occurred.”

Canadian Justice officials filed their court application on Dec. 24, 2025.

A Department of Justice spokesperson said the Attorney General of Canada was seeking an order under a section of the Canada Evidence Act “confirming the prohibition of disclosure of certain information.”

“We cannot provide further detail at this time.”

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The B.C. Prosecution Service, which is prosecuting the four accused, declined to comment on the Federal Court case. A spokesperson said the case was in the pretrial phase, which is subject to a publication ban.

2:26
Wiretap evidence sheds light on Nijjar murder

Nijjar was shot dead in his pickup truck on June 18, 2023, as he was leaving Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Temple. The RCMP believes India tapped mob boss Lawrence Bishnoi to arrange the killing.

In May 2024, the two suspected shooters, Amandeep Singh and Karanpreet Singh, the alleged getaway driver Karan Brar and a fourth suspect, Kamalpreet Singh, were arrested in Alberta and Ontario.

They have been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Neither Lawrence Bishnoi, who is imprisoned in India, nor his Canadian lieutenant at the time, Goldy Brar, have been charged in the murder.

The lawyers representing Amandeep Singh, Karanpreet Singh and Karan Brar, declined to comment on the matter. Kamalpreet Singh’s lawyer did not respond to emails from Global News.

India has said it has seen no evidence of its role in the plot.

A Canadian citizen who immigrated from India, Nijjar was a leader in the Khalistan separatist movement that seeks independence for India’s Sikh majority Punjab state. Although India called him a terrorist, he faced no charges in Canada.

At the time he was killed, Nijjar was organizing a symbolic referendum that asked members of the Sikh diaspora if they supported Khalistan independence. The other suspected targets of India’s campaign were also mostly Khalistan activists.

The initial tip implicating high-level Indian officials in the killing came from communications intercepted by the United Kingdom and shared with Canada by British intelligence, sources have told Global News.

Conversations mentioning targets in Canada were also picked up by the FBI during its investigation into a similar plot in which an Indian intelligence officer hired a criminal to kill a pro-Khalistan activist in the U.S.

2:05
Canada shifts trade focus to India after Carney’s latest overseas mission

Such intelligence is often shared with allies on the understanding that it cannot be used in court, said national security law expert Leah West, an associate professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs in Ottawa.

“It is typical, in cases where the police receive information from other intelligence services during an investigation, for the Attorney General to seek to have that information protected from disclosure,” she said.

“The basis for seeking to withhold it is referred to as national security privilege. The argument for that is that if disclosed, the information could reveal means and methods, investigative interests, or personnel of the service and doing so would be detrimental to Canadian national security.”

A judge has to confirm the privilege, she said. In addition, the information in question can’t be used against an accused, and anything that could point to the innocence of a defendant must be disclosed, she added.

State actors such as China, India and Iran have long sought to intimidate and silence members of Canada’s diaspora communities, a practice known as transnational repression.

“Transnational repression is emerging as one of the most serious yet least understood threats to security and democracy in Canada,” said a report released on Tuesday by the Montreal Institute for Global Security.

“As foreign states increasingly target individuals on Canadian soil, through intimidation, surveillance, digital harassment, coercion of family members abroad, and, in some cases, plans for physical harm, Canada faces a challenge that strikes at the core of its democratic values and institutions.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca