Deadly shootout results in 10-year prison term

A deadly exchange of gunfire a decade ago finally caught up with a Calgary man Friday, when he was sentenced to the equivalent of 10 years in a federal penitentiary.

Sanjit Ranhu pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter in connection with the May 12, 2007, death of Calgarian Pirtpal Jhajj.

Ranhu, 32, had been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Jhajj, 24.

Crown prosecutor Britta Kristensen entered a stay of proceedings on a second-degree murder charged against Amritpal Singh, who was not present in court, but represented by his lawyer, Derek Jugnauth.

Kristensen told Justice Beth Hughes that Jhajj’s death was the culmination of an ongoing dispute between two groups of South Asian males.

Two weeks before the killing, members of the two groups met at Prairie Winds Park in Calgary, where Singh’s cousin was stabbed and another man was shot, but both survived, the prosecutor said.

On May 11, Ranhu met with Antonio Guifarro and borrowed his Volkswagen Passat station wagon.

Later that same day Ranhu contacted Amritpal Gill and said he’d been looking for him for three days. After an exchange of phone calls they arranged to meet in Chestermere, Kristensen said.

Just before midnight Gill called Ranhu to say he was in Chestermere and wanted to know where he was.

Gill and three others were passengers in a Ford Expedition being driven by his friend, Karmajit Dhillon.

Shortly after midnight they were driving along East Chestermere Drive when Guifarro’s car drove from the other direction.

“As the brown station wagon pulled alongside Dhillon’s Ford Expedition, a series of gunshots from two firearms struck the Ford Expedition,” Kristensen said.

“Gunfire was exchanged between the two vehicles as they drove out of the residential area.”

Following the shootout, Jhajj slumped over one of the other passengers in the SUV who initially thought he was passing out drunk until it was determined he was unresponsive.

Kristensen said the two vehicles

met up at a second location on a Highway 1 overpass, where further shots were exchanged.

Gill called 911, but by the time Jhajj was taken to the Peter Lougheed Centre he was dead.

An autopsy by Dr. Sam Andrews determined Jhajj died as a result of a gunshot wound to his upper right back which pierced his jugular vein and carotid artery, before hitting his Adam’s apple.

“Injuries to the jugular vein and carotid artery would have caused significant blood loss and the injury to the thyroid cartilage would have impaired breathing,” the prosecutor said, reading from Andrews’ autopsy report.

She said Ranhu was the driver of the Passat and a party to Jhajj’s killing.

Both Kristensen and defence counsel Daniel Song proposed a joint submission for a sentence of 10 years minus 44 months credit for pretrial custody.

Before Hughes passed sentence, she heard victim impact statements from the deceased’s sister and parents, which were read in by the Crown.

His mother Daleep spoke about losing her only son, a child she’d prayed for for 16 years.

“God blessed me with Pirtpal … and killers snatched him from (us) in couple minutes,” she said in statement written by her daughter.