Shooter who targeted Punjabi star AP Dhillon hired by Bishnoi gang while on student visa, faces deportation

The gunman who opened fire on the Victoria-area home of Punjabi singer AP Dhillon in 2024 came to Canada on a student visa — and took the job at the behest of India’s notorious Bishnoi gang, according to newly released court records.

Abjeet Kingra, 25, was sentenced last month to six years in prison for arson and discharging a firearm into a residence, after a violent attack that saw vehicles torched and 14 bullets fired into Dhillon’s Langford home.

Judge Lisa Mrozinski, who presided over sentencing, called the assault “almost cinematic in nature.” She said Kingra and his accomplice recorded the shooting on a body camera — footage that the Bishnoi gang then posted online within hours, taking credit on social media.

‘Intended to induce terror’

“The offences were intended to cause fear — to induce terror in the mind of the owner of the residence and others close to him,” Mrozinski said.

Kingra, who came to Canada in 2020 to study, told the court he took on the contract after struggling with school and money. But the judge rejected his claim that family pressure drove the crime.

“These were your needs,” Mrozinski said. “Your family can in no way be held responsible.”

Kingra’s co-accused, Vikram Sharma, is believed to be in India.

After the attack, the pair fled in a vehicle later pulled over by a lone police officer who had heard reports of the shooting over his radio.

“The officer tried to detain the two of you at gunpoint,” Mrozinski said. “Your vehicle sped away.” Kingra was arrested three weeks later in Ontario.

Gang ties and global reach

The Bishnoi gang — founded in Punjab and Haryana, India — was listed by the Canadian government last month as a terrorist organization, accused of orchestrating violence, intimidation and extortion across borders.

Indian authorities say the gang, led by jailed crime boss Lawrence Bishnoi, has deep connections to organized crime networks that span from South Asia to North America.

Judge Mrozinski said Dhillon became a target after featuring a performer in one of his music videos who had “fallen afoul” of the Bishnoi network.

Dhillon, who was born in India and raised in Ontario, has become one of the most prominent South Asian artists in the world — winning the Juno Award for South Asian Music Recording of the Year earlier this year.

‘Carried out for profit on behalf of a criminal organization’

Mrozinski gave Kingra two years for arson and six years for the shooting, served concurrently — meaning just under five years remain on his sentence after credit for time already served.

Calling the crime “deliberate and disturbing,” the judge said it was “carried out under a contract for profit on behalf of a criminal organization intent on terrorizing a victim.”

Kingra’s student visa is expiring, and the court said he will likely be deported to India upon release.

“This was never about family,” Mrozinski said. “This was about fear, and you chose to spread it.”