As Bishnoi gang claims killing Punjabi businessman in Canada, his son says: ‘No one benefits from killing my father, no threat calls received’

Unidentified assailants shot him dead on Monday morning near his home in Abbotsford, British Columbia, when he was about to leave for work and was getting into his pick-up truck. In a statement, the Abbotsford police said the “homicide incident on Ridgeview Drive was being investigated”.

In an unverified post on social media, Dhillon purportedly claimed responsibility for killing Sahsi as he “ignored their extortion demands”. The unverified post also claimed that Sahsi “was involved in drug business.”

Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone, Sahsi’s younger son Arpan strongly denied the claims made in the unverified social media post. He also denied his father receiving any “extortion or threat calls”. He said the family will not allow his father’s “name to be tarnished at any cost.”

“We are still looking for answers. We completely deny all such talks which are going on. My father or anyone from our family never received any threat, extortion, or ransom call from any gangster, etc. No one, absolutely no one, benefits from killing my father. He was a man who just always gave back to society. People who know him really know who he was,” said the son, who also serves as managing director in his father’s company.

He said that on Monday morning, his father was heading for work as usual and there was “absolutely nothing unusual”.

“Had he received any such threat, he would have shared with us. There was nothing unusual that day, either in his behaviour or in anything around him. He was simply going to work in his vehicle when they came and shot him. And had he received any such threats, he would not have kept silent or ignored them. He would have put all his force behind to investigate,” he said.

“My father’s dedication to his work could be gauged from the fact that his last moment also came when he was headed for work. Nothing except his work and business amused him. He had over a thousand employees, and each one of them would tell what kind of person he was,” said the son.

“The police are investigating the matter, and we would not like to make any statement during the ongoing probe, but yes, we strongly deny claims of him receiving threat/ransom calls from any gangster, etc,” he said.

Sahsi is survived by his wife and two sons, Navi and Arpan, both of whom work at his cloth-recycling firm.

Rags-to-riches story

Born in 1956 in Rajgarh, Sahsi started farming at a young age with his father and brothers. He also ran a brick kiln for some time before moving to Canada.

“My father took a lot of pride in his farming roots. That is where his work ethic started. Punjab was his home, and he always felt attached to it,” said the son.

In India and Canada, he did several odd jobs, from fishing and plumbing to mechanics and fixing ACs and tractors, before he developed a passion for cloth recycling. “There was hardly a job left that my father did not do. He worked really hard throughout his life,” he said.

Sahsi’s cloth-recycling firm, Canam Group, also developed business interests in India, with Gujarat a hub of textiles. “My father was the first to get a licence for textile recycling under Kandla Special Economic Zone (KASEZ) in Gujarat,” he said.

According to its website, Canam Group is a “global textile recycling hub with over 1,500 employees worldwide and presence in over 40 countries”.

The company has recycled and redirected over 2 billion pounds of textile waste/clothing and employs mostly “women and underprivileged families from third world countries”.
Sahsi also entered the hospitality sector in the United States (US), where he owns several hotels.

In 2016, Darshan Singh Sahsi’s nephew Jagjit Singh Sahsi, 36, died of alleged drug addiction. Sahsi had publicly acknowledged his nephew’s drug addiction during his bhog ceremony at the gurdwara in Rajgarh. “I don’t want to hide the truth. My nephew has died of drugs,” he said then.

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