Bindy Johal

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Bindy Johal (d. December 20, 1998) was a notorious Vancouver-based Indo-Canadian organized crime leader who was assassinated on the evening of December 20, 1998 at the Palladium nightclub in downtown Vancouver. He sustained a single gun shot to the back of the head while in the midst of dancing club patrons. Johal had not brought his bodyguards with him to the club.

Throughout the 1990's, Johal ran the largest and most successful Indo-Canadian criminal organization in British Columbia. His criminal endeavours included the illicit narcotics trade, fraud, contract murder, money laundering, extortion and racketeering. In the mid-1990's, Johal would often be on primetime news exchanging threats with rival mobsters.

The Johal organization's annual earnings were between $3 million to $4 million at the time of his murder.^[1] Johal's activities brought his organization into direct confrontation with the Chinese criminal organization, the Lotus Triads. Early speculation by the Vancouver Police Department and local media placed blame on the Lotus Triads for Johal's murder, as the group had put a $250,000 bounty on his head for an earlier kidnapping and extortion operation conducted by Johal against the Triads.^[2]

It was later revealed that Johal was killed on the orders of his trusted lieutenant, Bal Buttar, who observed that Johal was losing personal control and was killing off his own associates. Buttar then assumed full control of the criminal organization before becoming a blind quadriplegic as a result of a botched attempt on his life.^[3]