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The Caledon family say they have received death threats, including against their children, after their business and home were shot up in acts of extortion.
Ranbir Mand says that on Thursday morning he woke up to the sound of gunshots, which left his family shaken and searching for answers.
“I didn’t know what to do. I was scared, my kids were scared, it happened at 5:30 in the morning,” says Mand, who said the incident comes after a family restaurant was targeted in a separate shooting a few weeks earlier.
“Three months ago, they were demanding a ransom of $2 million. We told them, let’s look at our place, we barely have any money left, and we don’t even have enough money to pay our mortgage and bills.”
Mand believes the suspects are part of lawrence bishnoi gang,
Lawrence Bishnoi has been in an Indian jail since 2015 and has more than two dozen criminal cases pending against him. He has been accused of using a cellphone to commit violent acts of extortion while in jail.
India’s anti-terrorism agency, the National Investigation Agency, said in 2023 that Bishnoi ran his “terrorist group” from prisons in various states in India and through an associate in Canada.
Last year, the RCMP accused India of using the Bishnoi gang to target Canadians and carry out extortion acts, especially those who advocate the creation of a separate Sikh homeland called Khalistan.
Canada in September Bishnoi gang listed as terrorist entity,
Mand showed our colleagues at OMNI News the WhatsApp numbers from England and Italy that they are using to intimidate and threaten him.
Caledon OPP confirmed to CityNews that they are investigating recent extortion cases, many of which involve phone calls or text messages from WhatsApp numbers. However, he did not confirm or deny whether this particular incident fell into that category or not. All messages contained threats of violence unless a large sum of money was paid, with the suspects having information about the individual’s home and workplace.
“I think this is 100 percent extortion,” Mand said.
As for Mand, who immigrated to Canada nearly 30 years ago and opened his own restaurant and a construction company, he says his hope is an end to the violence so that others like him are not targeted in the future.
“The people who shot at my family…they have no rights. They are not even human beings anymore, they are animals.”
Mand says that although they have installed security cameras throughout the house, they are worried that something like this could happen again.
Provincial police are asking anyone with information to contact them.
OMNI News contributed to this article