Brampton Punjabi community shamed by another incident of group violence

20-year-old Rankirat Singh and his accomplices beat three men with sticks and bats at traffic lights over property lease.

BRAMPTON: The Punjabi community of Brampton is shocked over the third incident of large-scale group violence involving Indo-Canadian young men during the past six months.

On Wednesday, a group of young Indo-Canadian men assaulted three men with sticks and bats at a traffic light, sending two of the victims to hospital with injuries.

Halton Police are hunting for 20-year-old Rankirat Singh of Brampton in connection with this attack.

Rankirat Singh is said have instigated the attack which followed over a lease deal.

According to police, Rankirat Singh had signed a lease for a Brampton property earlier this month through one of the victims. He had also made the deposit for the lease. But the property owner changed his mind and asked the victim (broker) to return the deposit to Rankirat Singh.

When the victim informed Rankirat Singh that the property owner has changed his mind and he would come to him to return the deposit, a heated argument ensued between them.

On June 20 just after midnight, when the victim (broker) with his two friends drove to Rankirat Singh to return the deposit at a pre-arranged place, they found several vehicles and many men with bats and sticks.

Fearing for their safety, the three fled in their vehicle, with Rankirat Singh and his accomplices in their pursuit. When the three stopped at a red light on Winston Churchill Boulevard and Steeles Avenue in Halton Hills, they were attacked by Rankirat Singh and others with sticks and bats.

Two of the victims suffered serious injuries and were rushed to hospital.

Halton Police conducted a search warrant at a Brampton residence on Thursday, seizing two vehicles, several sticks and a baton.

Police have asked Rankirat Singh and his accomplices to surrender at the earliest.

Rankirat SINGH (20) of Brampton is wanted for two counts of aggravated assault and one count of assault causing bodily harm for his role in yesterday's violent attack in Halton Hills that sent two men to hospital suffering serious injuries.

Details: https://t.co/hSIP7Qffht ^jh pic.twitter.com/HQAhkcj7FK

— Halton Police (@HaltonPolice) June 21, 2018

Detective Sergeant Dave Costantini said, “To Mr. Singh and the individuals involved, contact a lawyer and arrange for your safe surrender to investigators.”

All the three victims, who are in the age group of 26 to 30, are from Brampton.

After the violence, a video surfaced in which a young woman claiming to be Rankirat Singh’s girlfriend is seen narrating the root cause of the violence. She says Rankirat had arranged the lease for her.

She says when she told the property owner (Jaskaran) that she will stay alone with other girls in the rented accommodation, he started flirting with her. She said she first ignored his flirting but then it became too much for her as he wanted to meet her alone late and asked for her social media ID. She says the property owner even offered to waive her first month’s rent if she `cooperated’ with him. The woman said she has all his text messages on her phone.

The woman says she told her boyfriend Rankirat Singh that how the property owner has misbehaved with her. She says Rankirat called Jaskaran and the two had heated arguments. She says Jaskaran then cancelled the lease and asked Rankirat to meet him immediate to get back his deposit. The violence took place when the two men met.

Just days before this latest Punjabi brawl, another fight between two groups at the Sheridan College plaza on June 9 was also caught on video as shown below.

The latest ugly incident has angered the Indo-Canadian community, with people asked their area MPs to intervene to stop the senseless violence. In response, four Brampton MPs – Raj Grewal, Sonia Sidhu, Kamal Khera and Ruby Sahota – issued a strongly worded statement, warning international students that they face deportation if they are involved in these incidents.

In their statement, the MPs said, “Recently, several incidents of violence involving youth in Brampton have been reported, particularly in the areas of Shoppers World Plaza and Sheridan College.

“Videos of the incidents are widely being circulated on social media and our offices have received several calls and emails regarding the escalating violence and the safety in our community.
As elected Members of Parliament for Brampton, keeping our community safe is our number one priority. In the coming days, we will be meeting with the Mayor of Brampton, the Chief of Peel Regional Police, the new Progressive Conservative provincial administration, and Sheridan College to see how we can address, together, the root cause(s) of this surge in violence.”

The four MPs said, “We understand that the perception in the community is that international students are the main instigators of these incidents. We have asked the Peel Regional Police to investigate and update us on their findings. It is important to note that, if anyone in Canada with temporary immigration status, including international students, is charged with a crime under the criminal code and convicted, they will be subject to deportation.”

There have been a series of group fights involving Indo-Canadian young men, mostly students, in the last six months. In December, two groups of Indo-Canadians fought pitched battles with sticks in a Brampton plaza as seen in the video below.

In March, three Punjabi youths beat to death a 21-year-old Sikh youth.

Again, in March, three Punjabi youths outraged Canadians by beating an autistic man at the Square One bus stop in Mississauga.

Sikhs make up 20 percent of Brampton’s population of about 600,000.

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