COURT HEARS TALE OF GUNS, DRUGS, KIDNAPPING

Prosecutor Outlines Case Against Accused Jethinder Singh (Roman)
Narwal

Accused kidnapper Jethinder Singh (Roman) Narwal held guns to the
heads of his victims and threatened to kill them or members of their
families if they did not deliver money, drugs or property, B.C.
Supreme Court was told Monday.

Crown prosecutor Joe Bellows opened Narwal's trial in dramatic
fashion, describing a dangerous criminal underworld in which friends
kidnap friends over drug debts and rivalries. Justice Sunni
Stromberg-Stein heard Bellows detail three kidnappings earlier this
year in which separate victims were severely beaten, threatened with
painful deaths and told they might end up on the long list of slain
Indo-Canadian gangsters.

Narwal faces 15 charges in connection with three separate kidnappings
in January, April and May of this year. Others are charged in each of
the kidnappings, but the Crown decided to proceed by direct indictment
against Narwal.

Bellows said the first kidnapping victim was a man named Harpreet or
"Happy" Singh, who was held in a Burnaby apartment before escaping
from a vehicle and jumping through the window of a fast food restaurant.

"Your ladyship will hear of other acts of violence, threatened and
actual, in this apartment, including the accused putting a handgun to
his head," Bellows said.

An Abbotsford man named Khark Grewal was the April kidnap victim,
Bellows said.

He said Grewal had been hired by the gang to take four hockey bags of
marijuana across the border for a fee, but Grewal was seen by U.S.
border agents and left the pot and ran back across into Canada.

After Grewal explained to gang member Bobby Atwal what happened, he
was kidnapped by a group of men that included Narwal and held for
ransom, Bellows said.

Grewal's father Surjit Singh was approached by Atwal and others, who
requested $500,000, Bellows said.

"Bobby Atwal said to him, 'You know that 80 or 90 boys have been
killed in our community. I am best friends with your son, but to save
him you have to pay this amount,' " Bellows said, previewing the
father's anticipated evidence at the trial.

Another kidnapper identified only as Roy told the victim's father, "If
you don't pay you can't be alive."

Bellows said Grewal's father was told to take the money to a local
Sikh temple and that the ransom would go up by $100,000 a day if it
wasn't paid.

Grewal was told to strip naked and photographs were taken of him on a
cell phone camera, Bellows said.

"As this photographing was taking place, he was told that they wanted
to show his father the pictures the next day and told him either the
father would sign over the farm and pay them or he would be dead,"
Bellows said. "His captors joked about how he looked and threatened
that they were going to burn his house down and kill his family."

As Grewal was being driven in a van to a new location, he smashed
against a door and managed to escape as the kidnappers tried to grab
him. Grewal was able to help police find the barn where he was held
and his DNA was discovered in blood left at the scene, Bellows said.

The third kidnapping took place just six days later, Bellows said and
involved a man named Harjit Singh Toor.

Bellows said Toor was grabbed after work because his brother had been
involved in a botched drug run and the gangsters, including Narwal,
wanted to find their pot.

Toor was even asked by some of the accused if he would be willing to
take a lie detector test.

Bellows said a retired Vancouver police officer did administer one
polygraph to another person involved, but refused to do a second one
once he realized what was going on.

Toor was also taken to a barn, beaten and had a gun held to his head,
Bellows said.

"The gunman told him that they had two people here in the same place
two weeks ago and "we did them," Bellows said.

Toor was taken to a house. Meanwhile, his family was cooperating with
police and delivered $150,000 in ransom money.

Toor was released and several suspects were arrested, including
Narwal, Bellows said.

Narwal, 30, has pleaded not guilty to all counts. His lawyer, Matthew
Nathanson, declined to make an opening statement.