The Province

Man accuses relatives of trying to kill him

- BY KEITH FRASER THE PROVINCE kfraser@theprovinc­e.com twitter.com/keithfrase­r

More than 15 years after being shot and left to die in India, Brinder Rai still wakes up haunted by the experience.

The Calgary man has filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court accusing some of his B.C. relatives of an attempted honour killing.

The 37-year-old businessma­n and father of two young children, who was born in B.C., says he, his siblings and mother were abandoned by his father at a young age.

His great-grandfathe­r deeded to him some ancestral land from his estranged father’s village in the Punjab, a move, he says, that infuriated his father, grandfathe­r and uncle, who felt their honour was damaged.

“Basically, they tried to kill me and take my honour from me,” he said in an interview.

On a trip to India in June 1996, on a road that crossed through his property, the Jeep in which he was a passenger was stopped in an ambush.

When he stepped out of the vehicle, his grandfathe­r, Zora Singh Rai, held him at gunpoint with a shotgun, and said, “Now you will die,” and pulled the trigger, he says in the suit.

The shot pierced his right lung and diaphragm, perforatin­g his stomach, spleen, gallbladde­r, liver and some of his intestines.

“I died a million times. From when I got shot to the time I went into the OR, it seemed like a million years.”

Another man, Harbhajan Singh, who accompanie­d Zora Singh Rai to the plaintiff’s property, was shot and killed, says the plaintiff.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Rai says, he was transferre­d from hospital to jail and had his Canadian passport confiscate­d. He was accused in Singh’s murder along with others, but was released on bail, staying in India for more than three years to exonerate himself and his co-accused.

Since the shooting, he says, he has received death threats.

The lawsuit alleges that Rai was deliberate­ly and maliciousl­y assaulted and battered. It names Zora Singh Rai, a resident of Richmond, and five other relatives as defendants.

Brinder Rai is seeking general, special and punitive damages.

Zora Singh Rai could not be reached for comment.

Brinder Rai’s father, Gurlal Singh Rai, a resident of Langley and one of the defendants, said he hadn’t yet been served with the lawsuit, but denied the allegation­s.

“He got shot by somebody else,” he said. “It was not my father. He was too old.”

 ?? — SUBMITTED PHOTO ?? ZORA SINGH RAI
— SUBMITTED PHOTO ZORA SINGH RAI
 ?? — SUBMITTED PHOTO ?? BRINDER RAI
— SUBMITTED PHOTO BRINDER RAI
 ?? PAUL J. HENDERSON — CHILLIWACK TIMES ?? GURLAL SINGH RAI
PAUL J. HENDERSON — CHILLIWACK TIMES GURLAL SINGH RAI

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