Bindy Johal

Bhupinder "Bindy" Singh Johal (14 January 1971 – 20 December 1998) was an Indo-Canadian gangster from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

A self-confessed drug trafficker, he was known for his outspoken nature, blatant disregard for authority and his longtime rivalry with former mentors Ranjit Cheema and rival Punjabi Mafia faction led by the Dosanjh brothers and Robbie Kandola.

Although he did well in school and was even on the honour roll, he was expelled from Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School and sentenced to 60 days in jail after he "brutally" assaulted his vice-principal in 1989.

Johal tried to justify his behaviour at his trial in a defence that the journalist Jerry Langton wrote "smacked of cold-blooded cynicism" by saying that as an Indo-Canadian that he was the victim of a racist society and he was only just lashing out against society by beating up his vice-principal so severely that he had to go to the hospital emergency room to save his life.

The judge at Johal's trial rejected this defence.

The judge noted there was no evidence that the vice-principal was a racist and that whatever slights and insults Johal may have endured from others was no excuse for the assault.

Having moved to Richmond, British Columbia, Johal enrolled in McNair Secondary School.

Johal smashed in the window of a car using a baseball bat and was convicted of possession of a dangerous weapon.

Johal enrolled in college, but dropped out after his first semester and thus began his criminal career.

Johal joined a once Hispanic gang called Los Diablos ("The Devils").

As the membership of Los Diablos became more Indo-Canadian, the gang was renamed as the Punjabi Mafia.

He built a reputation as a hit-man working for Jimmy and Ron Dosanjh, both of whom he would later betray and have killed.

Johal also started to sell cocaine.

On 14 March 1991, a Colombian drug trafficker, Teodoro Salcedo, was murdered in Vancouver Jimsher "Jimmy" Dosanjh was arrested and charged with the murder.

While Dosanjh was in jail awaiting his trial which ended with his acquittal, Johal took advantage of his absence to make himself leader of the gang.

Johal and his gang hijacked trucks carrying electronics and automobiles landed at the port of Vancouver, which he sold on the black market.

A television documentary at the time estimated that Johal had an annual income of $4 million.

Bindy reportedly had antisocial personality disorder which may account for why he was so quick to kill those close to him.

He didn't keep close friends and was extremely callous to his associates.

He reportedly tortured some of his victims, some of whom were from his own crew.

According to Constable Spencer, "All he was concerned about was himself, he was very narcissistic in nature and had a general hatred of people. Bindy actually met Bal Buttar, one of his close associates, in prison when he was in his twenties. They never knew each other growing up and from Bal's statements, Bindy made it very clear that they were not friends, but business partners as he did with everyone else in his group."

He attended school with Harjit Sajjan, who later became the Canadian Minister of Defense.

Johal was responsible in the murders of gangster brothers Ron Dosanjh and Jimmy Dosanjh.

Jimmy Dosanjh was killed in February 1994, and Ron was killed in April 1994.

Johal knew that Jimmy Dosanjh had taken out a contract to kill him for over C$230,000, according to Crown prosecutors.

The hitman whom Jimmy Dosanjh hired to kill Johal instead approached him and made a deal for more money to kill Dosanjh.

On 25 February 1994, Dosanjh went into a back alley to inspect some stolen electronics that his men had taken, when he was ambushed and killed by his own men whose true loyalty was to Johal.

As a result, after killing Jimmy Dosanjh, Johal went on T.V. and stated, "This Jimmy Dosanjh, they portrayed him as a hit-man this that. Personally from what I've seen of him on the street I don't think he could have hit his way out of a paper bag."

This was a direct insult directed to Jimmy and Ron Dosanjh claiming that they had stopped being hitmen themselves and were rarely doing their dirty work themselves after climbing to the top of their criminal organization.

In a television interview, Ranjit "Ron" Dosanjh told a television crew that if he saw Johal at his house, he’d “shoot him between the eyes". Johal when asked to comment about the remark by another television crew snapped back: "Basically, I just want these guys to know you got another thing coming, bitch!

I'm still here!" On 19 April 1994, Ron Dosanjh was killed in his red pick-up truck while waiting for a traffic light when a car pulled alongside his truck and a man opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle. Dosanjh took several bullets to his face, killing him instantly and his truck veered wildly as his foot was no longer on the brake, crashing into a tree. On 24 April 1994, Johal's neighbour, Greg Olson, who was walking his dog, was killed in a case of mistaken identity. On 25 April 1994, Johal was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Dosanjh murders alongside Sarbjit Gill, Rajinder "Big Raj" Benji, Michael Kim Budai, Sun News Lai, Preet "Peter" Sarbjit Gill, and Kim "Phil" Ho-Sik, whom the Crown alleged to be the actual gunman who killed the Dosanjh brothers.

Because of the required security for the trial, it was one of the most expensive trials in Canadian history.

His former brother-in-law, Peter Gill, was also accused.

The accused, including Gill and Johal, were acquitted.

On 20 December 1998, Johal was fatally shot in the back of the head at a crowded nightclub in Vancouver.

Born in Punjab, India to a Jatt Sikh family of the Johal clan, Bindy immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia with his parents at the age of four.

He was increasingly temperamental, resented discipline, and had a lack of respect and remorse for others.

He suffered from severe depression when his parents cut his hair after an armed assault in Canada in the aftermath of the Assassination of Indira Gandhi, which happened miles away in Delhi, his mother said, "That was the only time I saw another expression of his other than anger and silence."

Johal was considered to be a "problem child" by his teachers.

One of Johal's teachers, Rob Sandhu, stated: "When he came into Grade 8, it didn't seem like he had any problems. It seems these kids are not being flagged. But teachers are raising these issues, so why aren't we acting on it?"