A 29-year-old man on Tuesday entered a guilty plea at a Canadian court in connection with an attack on an Indo-Canadian mediaperson in September 2024. Dilpreet Singh pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm in the incident when he allegedly attacked Rishi Kumar, news director of the radio channel Red FM Calgary.
The plea was entered before a court in Calgary in Alberta. That outcome is likely to have “potential immigration consequences,” Singh’s lawyer told the presiding judge.
The radio host, better known as Rishi Nagar, in his broadcast had commented on at least one person brandishing a weapon after members of the community met at the Dashmesh Cultural Centre to discuss extortion events. Nagar linked that to a protest earlier at the Centre. Singh wasn’t involved in the firearms incident but was unhappy with the content of the broadcast.
He attempted to meet Nagar but was unable to do so. Then on a Sunday when Nagar was leaving an election-related event in the NorthEast quadrant of the city in the Rio Banquet Hall, Singh and another person confronted him in the parking lot of the venue.
According to the prosecution, as cited by the outlet Calgary Herald, “Very quickly into that discussion Dilpreet Singh punched Mr Kumar in the face, knocking off (his) glasses. During the assault, which was very short in time, Mr Singh was yelling in Punjabi that Mr Kumar had no business making an inaccurate broadcast.”
As a consequence of the attack, Nagar “fell to the ground during this assault and suffered more hits to hit head.” The prosecution added that the victim suffered blunt trauma injury to his eye which required cataract surgery and could lead to retinal detachment in the future or further cataract surgery or glaucoma.
“When I came out of the event and was moving towards my car, they attacked unprovoked. My left eye is damaged, right leg is injured,” Nagar told HT after the incident.
A spokesperson for Calgary Police told Red FM that the two arrested in connection with the firearms episode had been identified as Gursewak Singh and Sukhpreet Singh. The former was charged with pointing a firearm, unauthorised possession of a firearm, possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public, contravention of the Firearms Act, and threats to cause death or bodily harm, while the latter faced the same counts except pointing a firearm.
