The deportation of a Bishnoi extortion gang member was postpone on Thursday after federal officials couldn’t 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 not knew his whereabouts.
“Without knowing where he’s, there’s not much else we are able to do,” Azeem Lalji, the IRB member overseeing the case, said before shutting down the hearing.
The B.C. court, nevertheless, 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’s a listed terrorist group in Canada, which blames it for murders, shootings and arsons targeting distinguished South Asian community members, businesses and cultural figures.
Kingra is considered one of the primary Bishnoi members to face a deportation hearing amid a crackdown against extortion in B.C., Alberta and Ontario.
But because the case was set to start on Thursday morning, he was not present. The IRB said it thought he was detained on the Pacific Institution in Abbotsford, B.C.
When the jail staff didn’t bring him to his virtual hearing, the IRB said it had just learned that he had been moved but didn’t his recent location.
The IRB member said the proceedings would resume “within the very near future.” The CBSA said it might try to seek out out where he was now held.
Neither the IRB nor CBSA responded to questions on the matter by deadline. The B.C. government referred inquiries to the federal government.
Border officials are investigating 372 foreign residents 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 faraway from Canada, the CBSA said. The figures are as of March 12, 2026.
Get day by day National news
Get day by day Canada news delivered to your inbox so you will never miss the day’s top stories.
But a handful have also been sent to the Immigration and Refugee Board for deportation hearings, alleging they’re inadmissible to Canada.
Global News has learned that Kingra is facing deportation for allegedly being a member of a criminal organization.
Like a lot of those implicated within 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, against the law 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 home, fired off 14 shots and fled into the waiting automotive.
The Bishnoi gang took responsibility for the attack.
“Your goal and your intent was essentially to terrorize Mr. Dhillon on the behest of a criminal organization often called the Bishnoi gang,” the judge wrote at sentencing.
“Mr. Dhillon’s apparent transgression was to have included a person in considered one of his music videos who had himself fallen afoul of this organization.”
Kingra was sentenced to 6 years.
“I select unsuitable technique 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’m very ashamed.”
But last October, he was charged over one other incident. In keeping with the fees, he shot at and set fire to a house in Surrey on Aug. 10, 2024.
He’s due in Surrey court on April 21. His alleged accomplice, Vikram Sharma, allegedly fled to India before he could possibly be arrested and stays wanted.
The RCMP has accused the Bishnoi gang of working for the federal government of India to kill Sikh activists, amongst them B.C. temple leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar was gunned down within the parking zone of his Surrey, B.C. temple in 2023. 4 suspects allegedly tied to the Bishnoi gang face murder charges.
Canadian national security agencies consider the killing was ordered by the Indian government, which got down 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 identical time, the extortion campaign waged by the Bishnoi gang and others prefer it have spread fear in South Asian communities.
Because the bulk of extortion gang members are from foreign nations, the CBSA has played an increasing role within 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, in addition to police in Ontario.
“When police discover individuals who could also be in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, they notify the CBSA who conducts investigations which will result in immigration enforcement motion, including removal from Canada,” the agency said in a statement last month.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.