Shooter was on student visa when Bishnoi gang hired him to threaten Punjabi musician AP Dhillon

But the try who sentenced Abjeet Kingra endure month for a wild sept 2024 assail on the musician's home said the accused struggled in school and the Canadian employment market, "and in doing so failed to meet [his] family's financial needs back home, thus taking on this contract."

"It was put that you: 'Put your family's need ahead of the safety of others,'" said Judge Lisa Mrozinski, quoting submissions from Kingra's lawyer.

"But really, Mr. Kingra, these were your needs and your family can in no way be held responsible for these offences."

Mrozinksi sentenced Kingra to six years in jail last month for arson and a firearms-related offence that saw Kingra and a co-accused set fire to vehicles in Dhillon's driveway before firing 14 shots into his house, smashing glass and lodging bullets into walls inside the home.

The two men then left the scene and fled a lone police officer who tried to arrest them after pulling them over for a traffic stop. Kingra was arrested in Ontario three weeks later and his co-accused — Vikram Sharma — is believed to be in India.

"Within hours of these offences, the Bishnoi group took responsibility for them. They were able to do this on an international stage largely because the footage captured by your body cam was posted online within hours of these offences occurring," Mrozinski said.

"You appear in the video clip to be quite calculated or deliberate in your movements and your actions. The footage is almost cinematic in nature. The kind of thing one might see in a violent movie or a video game, certainly not in real life, and certainly not in a residential neighbourhood in Langford, British Columbia."

The case highlights Canadian links to the Bishnoi gang, which the federal government listed as a terrorist entity last month, claiming that "specific communities have been targeted for terror, violence and intimidation."

The Bishnoi gang is one of a number of criminal enterprises from Punjab and Haryana in northern India that have spread into North America in recent years, even as its founder Lawrence Bishnoi has been imprisoned in India since 2014.

The gangs' violence is partly rooted in village codes of honour and vendetta, but it's mainly driven by modern imperatives of business and politics. Indian media describe drug smuggling and extortion as the gangs' biggest sources of income, both at home and abroad.

A multi-million-record-selling singer and producer, Dhillon made history recently as the winner of the Juno Awards' first-ever South Asian Music Recording of the Year.

Born in India, but raised in Ontario, Dhillon has a Vancouver Island home in a suburb of Victoria which fell in the crosshairs of the Bishnoi gang.

"Mr Dhillon's apparent transgression was to have included an individual in one of his music videos who had himself fallen afoul of this organization," Mrozinski said.

The judge appeared to be referring to the appearance in one of Dhillon's videos of Bollywood star Salman Khan, who raised the ire of the Bishnoi gang after being accused of hunting a type of antelope revered by the Bishnoi community.

Mrozinski said Kingra was described as a "follower, rather than a leader in the enterprise," but that the attack itself appeared well-planned, with the two suspects caught on surveillance cameras scouting the area in the hours before any violence erupted.

"These offences were intended to cause fear and intended to induce terror in the mind of the owner of the residence and others known or close to him," Mrozinski said.

"They were done on contract for a criminal organization operating internationally."

The judge also described a dramatic scene following the attack as Kingra and his co-accused made their escape. The pair encountered a lone police officer who pulled their vehicle over for a traffic stop.

"The officer quickly ascertained that your vehicle was related to the arson and shooting then being broadcast over his police radio," Mrozinski said.

"Though he tried to detain the two of you at gunpoint, your vehicle sped away, ultimately crashing some distance apart."

The judge said Kingra came to Canada in the hopes of finishing his studies, finding a job and possibly obtaining permanent residency that would see him act "as a bridge enabling other family members to settle here."

Instead, the expiration of his student visa is imminent and Mrozinski said he faces deportation as a consequence of his convictions.

Kingra was arrested last October and has spent nearly a year in custody awaiting sentencing on the two offences.

The judge gave him two years for arson and six years for discharging a firearm into Dhillon's home, the upper end of the scale for conduct "carried out under a contract for profit on behalf of a criminal organization intent on terrorizing a victim."

The two sentences will be served concurrently, which means that Kingra will serve another four years and eight months after getting credit for the time he has already served.

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