Surrey extortionist told police Bishnoi contractor paid $3K for fiery attack

Three Indian nationals jailed earlier this month for their roles in a fiery attack on a South Surrey home in February were paid $1,000 each by a subcontractor for the Bishnoi gang, according to a record of their sentencing.

One of the men told police that he and his associates were hired by a man named Goldy Dhillon to throw Molotov cocktails and shoot at the home. Dhillon is a suspect whose name has arisen in connection with other extortion cases covered by CBC News.

Taranveer Singh was sentenced to five years after pleading guilty to firing four shots into the home in the middle of the night. His two accomplices — Harjot Singh and Dayajeet Singh Billing — were each sentenced to two years for throwing an explosive substance.

‘What could have happened’

CBC News has listened to audio of the sentencing proceedings that reveals the connection to Goldy Dhillon, a man implicated in multiple extortion cases in Surrey.

A separate search warrant CBC News obtained from Surrey provincial court also details Taranveer Singh’s alleged role in an earlier arson attack at a different location in December 2025.

Taken together with security camera footage capturing the men filming themselves carrying out the attack, the incident fits into an established pattern of the Bishnoi gang using young foreign nationals to carry out and record acts of terror.

According to victim impact statements, six people were in the home near Crescent Road and 132 Street in the early hours of Feb. 1, including the two-year-old grandson of the owner, who said his family’s sense of safety has been shattered by the incident.

“I often find myself thinking about what could have happened,” wrote the victim, who said one of the bullets lodged itself in a wooden doorframe inside the home, stopping a trajectory that could have carried it to his grandchild’s room.

“He was asleep in what should have been the safest place in the world for a child — his home.”

‘The possibility of an unimaginable tragedy’

Taranveer Singh, Harjot Singh and Dayajeet Singh Billing were sentenced through a joint submission by Crown and defence that included an agreed statement of facts beginning with the purchase of a blue cigarette lighter and $10 worth of gas prior to the attack.

The three men arrived at the scene in two different vehicles — a Mitsubishi Outlander and a Range Rover SUV. They left the Range Rover a few blocks away and parked the Outlander on the west side of the house.

Harjot Singh then held up a cellphone and filmed as Dayajeet Singh Billing lit wicks atop Heineken bottles filled with accelerant and threw them into the driveway.

“Taranveer Singh fired four shots at the victim residence,” the agreed statement of facts reads.

“One bullet struck the front driver side tire rim of a Black Dodge Ram pick-up … one bullet penetrated the master bedroom window and lodged itself in the bedroom door .. one bullet struck the outside ledge just underneath the master bedroom … one bullet struck the clay tile also underneath the exterior of the master bedroom window.”

In her victim impact statement, the owner’s daughter-in-law — the mother of the two-year-old — said she and her husband were awakened by the sound of gunshots. She said she has since sought counselling and continues to experience anxiety.

“When I reflect on that morning, it is impossible to think about how little separated my family from a devastating outcome,” she wrote.

“Approximately one and a half inches of wood made the difference between my toddler remaining safe and the possibility of an unimaginable tragedy.”

The link to Goldy Dhillon

The motive for the attack is not explained in the agreed statement of facts and was not addressed during the sentencing proceedings.

But court documents say “Taranveer Singh told police that he was contacted by someone named ‘Goldy Dhillon’ and was offered $2,000 to $3,000 to conduct the shooting, which was to be shared with Mr. Harjot Singh and Mr. Billing.”

Goldy Dhillon is an associate of Lawrence Bishnoi, the gang leader who has been accused of orchestrating a campaign of terror in communities across Canada from a prison cell in India.

Much of what CBC News has learned about the Bishnoi gang and its links to arson, shootings, extortion and insurance fraud has emerged from a series of Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) hearings, which have resulted in dozens of deportation orders in recent months.

Bishnoi’s organization has been described as a hierarchy relying on mid-level operators like Goldy Dhillon to co-ordinate the actions of foreign students and temporary workers who carry out the gang’s front-line activities, primarily in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

The gang purportedly sent a letter directly to Abbotsford police last summer claiming to have 1,000 foot soldiers in Canada ready to carry out extortions.

Goldy Dhillon’s name arose in recent weeks at an IRB admissibility hearing for Abjeet Kingra, the perpetrator of an arson and shooting attack at the Victoria-area home of Punjabi musician AP Dhillon in September 2024.

Counsel for the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship cited a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) tactical manual describing Goldy Dhillon as a “subcontractor” for the Bishnoi gang who has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in Surrey.

Goldy Dhillon also claimed responsibility for a string of shootings at Kap’s Cafe in Surrey last year, a business owned by Bollywood celebrity Kapil Sharma.

The gun used in one of those shootings has since been tied to a firearms incident in Edmonton involving another mid-level Bishnoi associate.

Allegations of an earlier arson

According to the court records, Dayajeet Singh Billing is 21 and came to Canada in 2022 on a work permit with his sister sponsoring him.

Harjot Singh was 21 at the time of the attack. He emigrated to Canada in 2023 and was working construction in order to pay for university.

Taranveer Singh, who is 19, came to Canada on a visitor visa in 2024 and has not really worked in Canada. A prosecutor described him as the “most morally culpable” of the three.

According to a search warrant obtained by CBC News, Taranveer Singh is also a suspect in a separate South Surrey firebombing incident in December that resulted in his arrest at that time alongside two other Indian nationals following an attack on a truck storage facility.

The three men were picked up after witnesses called to report a tractor truck “fully engulfed in flames and two other tractor trucks that suffered indirect fire damage.”

CCTV footage of that attack caught the alleged perpetrators being dropped off at the scene in a vehicle before pouring accelerant onto one of the trucks.

“One person ignites it into flames while the other appears to record with a cellphone,” the search warrant says.

Taranveer Singh’s clothing and iPhone were seized at the time. But he has never been charged in association with that attack — which occurred a month and a half before the South Surrey arson and shooting that resulted in his imprisonment.

All three of the accused in the February attack are also now the subject of admissibility proceedings before the Immigration and Refugee Board.

The judge who sentenced them said they will almost certainly be deported.