A video has emerged purportedly showing several rounds being fired at Punjabi singer AP Dhillon’s house in Canada. It also shows two vehicles set on fire during the September 2 incident in Vancouver. The singer was not injured in the shooting.

The Lawrence Bishnoi gang had claimed they carried out the firing since the singer featured actor Salman Khan in a music video. The notorious gang, which is being probed for the Sidhu Moose Wala and Baba Siddique murders, has also threatened to kill the actor.

Canadian cops have arrested an Indian man named Abhijeet Kingra, 25, from Ontario for his alleged involvement in the firing case. An arrest warrant has also been issued for Vikram Sharma, also Indian.

Kingra has been charged with the discharge of a firearm with intent and arson and will appear in the Ontario court today, said Canadian Police in a statement.

The cops don’t have any photo of Sharma, 23, but described him as a South Asian male, 5 feet 9-inch-tall man with black hair and brown eyes. They suspect he’s currently in India.

AP Dhillon is known for popular Punjabi songs like ‘Brown Munde’, ‘Excuses’, ‘Summer High’, ‘With You’, ‘Dil Nu’, and ‘Insane’, among others.

The Lawrence Bishnoi gang had claimed it was also behind another firing incident at a jeweller’s house in Canada. Gangster Rohit Godara, who claims he is associated with Bishnoi, had also issued death threats to Mr Dhillon in a social media post.

A video has emerged showing several rounds being fired at Punjabi singer AP Dhillon’s house in Canada. It also shows two vehicles set on fire during the September 2 incident in Vancouver. The singer, who lives on Victoria Island in Vancouver, was not injured in the shooting.

The notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which is being probed for the high-profile murders of Sidhu Moose Wala and Baba Siddique, had then claimed they carried out the firing since the singer featured actor Salman Khan in a music video.

Read | “I’m Safe”: Singer AP Dhillon After Firing Outside His Canada House

Canadian cops have arrested a suspect named Abhijeet Kingra, an Indian, from Ontario and issued an arrest warrant for a second suspect, Vikram Sharma.

Kingra, 25, has been charged with arson and discharge of a firearm with intent, said the Canadian Police in a statement posted on its website. He will appear in the Ontario court today.

The cops said they don’t have a photo of Sharma, 23, but described him as a South Asian male who is 5 feet and 9 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. They suspect he’s currently in India.

AP Dhillon, known for blending the 80s-style synth-pop with Punjabi music, has seen a meteoric rise in the global canvas with hits that include ‘Brown Munde’, ‘Dil Nu’, and ‘Insane’.

Read | Firing Outside AP Dhillon’s Canada House, Gangster Claims Responsibility

After the shooting incident in September, the Bishnoi gang issued death threats to Mr Dhillon in a social media post. Gangster Rohit Godara, who claims to be associated with Lawrence Bishnoi, had also said it was behind the firing at a jeweller’s house in Canada.

Mr Dhillon later shared on Instagram that he was safe and thanked his fans for reaching out to him.

New Delhi:

The Lawrence Bishnoi gang has not only claimed responsibility for the murder of Baba Siddique but also threatened that anyone who helps actor Salman Khan, near whose house it has already fired warning shots, will be in its crosshairs.

Soon after Mr Siddique, a three-time MLA and former Maharashtra minister, was killed near the office of his son, MLA Zeeshan Siddique, in Bandra East on Saturday night, speculation began swirling of a Bishnoi gang link to the daring crime. This was confirmed on Sunday after a post on Facebook by one Shibu Lonkar, believed to be Bishnoi gang associate Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar, claiming responsibility.

In the post, Lonkar claimed that Siddique had been killed because he was linked to India’s most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, was close to Salman Khan and because of the death of Anuj Thapan, one of the arrested suspects in the shooting outside Mr Khan’s house, in police custody.

Thapan was found dead on May 1 inside the Mumbai Crime Branch lock-up. The police had said he died by suicide but his family had claimed he was tortured in custody.

“We do not have any enmity with anyone but whoever helps Salman Khan and the Dawood gang, keep your accounts in order (‘hisab-kitaab kar lena’),” Lonkar wrote in Hindi in the Facebook post. Police said they are verifying the authenticity of the post.

Siddique was known for hosting lavish parties and a five-year-long cold war between Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan was resolved at his ‘iftar’ party in 2013. 

Police sources said at least two celebrities have been attacked by the Bishnoi gang for their perceived closeness to Salman Khan since last year. Mr Khan visited the hospital where Siddique was admitted after he was shot on Saturday and also went to his residence on Sunday.

In November 2023, shots were fired at the house of Punjabi singer Gippy Grewal in Canada’s Vancouver and the Bishnoi gang had said it had done so because Mr Grewal had praised Mr Khan and treated him “like a brother”.

Mr Grewal had said he had only met the actor twice.

In September this year, shots were fired near the house of another Punjabi singer, AP Dhillon, in Vancouver. Rohit Godara, a notorious member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, had said the shooting was the handiwork of the outfit. The firing occurred after Mr Dhillon released a video of his song ‘Old Money’, which featured Salman Khan.

Why Salman Khan?

The Bishnoi gang, which became a household name after claiming responsibility for murdering musician Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022, has said it wants to kill Salman Khan because of his alleged involvement in shooting blackbucks at Bawad in Mathania near Jodhpur in September 1998, during the filming of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’.

The alleged act had upset the Bishnoi community, which considers the blackbuck holy.

Lawrence Bishnoi had said during a court appearance in 2018: “We will kill Salman Khan in Jodhpur. Everyone will know once we take action. I have not done anything as of now, they are accusing me of crimes for no reason.”

Heightened Security

Meanwhile, security has been tightened around Salman Khan’s house – Galaxy Apartments in Bandra – outside which a firing had taken place on April 14. Mr Khan had later told the police that he believed that the shooting was done at the behest of the Bishnoi gang with the intention of killing him and his family.

A tight security cordon has also been put in place in South Mumbai’s Malabar Hill, where the residences of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar are located. Siddique, who had been part of the Congress for 48 years, had switched to Mr Pawar’s party earlier this year.

Officials said patrolling has been increased in the Malabar Hill area and some points have also been blocked.

Shots were reportedly fired outside Punjabi singer AP Dhillon’s house on Victoria Island in Canada’s Vancouver. The incident took place yesterday and a man named Rohit Godara, a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, has reportedly taken responsibility for the incident.

A video, which can not be independently verified, shows a man standing outside a house firing multiple shots at night. The video is being circulated on the internet but the location remains unverified.

AP Dhillon lives on Victoria Island in British Columbia.

A purported post is being circulated where the gangster, Rohit Godara, is claiming that the firing took place at two locations in Canada – Victoria Island and Woodbridge Toronto. According to the post, he fired outside the singer’s house after he featured Salman Khan in a music video. He also gave death threats to the singer in the purported post. The gangster claims he is associated with Lawrence Bishnoi. 

Security agencies are verifying the claims made in the post and analysing the video. The singer is yet to respond to the incident. The police in Canada have not responded to the incident. 

AP Dhillon is known for blending the 80s-style synth-pop with Punjabi music. His rise on the global canvas has been meteoric owing to songs like ‘Brown Munde’, ‘Excuses’, ‘Summer High’, ‘With You’, ‘Dil Nu’, and ‘Insane’, among others.

In November last year, gangster Lawrence Bishnoi claimed responsibility for a purported shooting at singer Gippy Grewal’s house in Canada. The alleged incident took place in the White Rock neighbourhood in Vancouver.

In April, two motorcycle-borne persons opened fire outside Khan’s residence at the Galaxy Apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra area and fled the spot. The Mumbai police declared jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his younger brother Anmol Bishnoi as “wanted accused” in connection with the incident.

Last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that Mr Khan topped the list of 10 main targets that jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi planned to eliminate, citing the actor’s infamous 1998 black buck hunting incident, which according to the gangster, offended the Bishnoi community.