Litigation over millions in alleged financial misconduct by former MP and lawyer Raj Grewal and his colleagues has brought to the fore a more chilling backdrop to the saga — a shocking murder of a Grewal associate and shootings at his home.
The recent cross-examination of a witness in one of a slew of lawsuits against the ex-Liberal member, the law firm he founded and other lawyers raised the fact that a Grewal employee, Jaskarn Dhaliwal, was shot dead eight months ago as he drove out of a Brampton, Ont., mall.
Police described the incident as an isolated attack, and within days charged three men in Dhaliwal’s murder, two from Brampton and one from Toronto, all in their 20s.
In other violent incidents, someone fired at Grewal’s Toronto-area home in 2023 and, according to sources, again more recently.
Multiple lawsuits and the Law Society of Ontario, the province’s legal regulator, have accused Grewal and associates of fraud, misappropriation of client funds and other wrongdoing in a series of real-estate transactions.
Grewal resigned his Brampton East seat in 2018 after admitting to racking up millions in gambling losses, was charged by the RCMP over loans he received to pay off the debts, then was acquitted.
There’s no evidence the shootings had any connection to the allegations now being litigated. But a businessman in a financial spat with RSG Law, the firm Grewal founded, recently talked in a deposition for one of the cases about the impact Dhaliwal’s killing had on him.
“There was a shooting that happened in December and it was one of Raj’s employees and, after that, I was really, like, I was really, really shaken up,” said Sarwan Singh, who says RSG Law owes him $4 million in unpaid loans. “That happened about, like, three or four minutes from my house…. He (the victim) was a young kid.”
The 25-year-old was ambushed as he was leaving Brampton’s Shoppers World mall, his attackers firing multiple shots, Peel Regional Police said at the time. They have never indicated the possible motive.
Lawyer Wendy Greenspoon-Soer, who represents The National Bank in one of the suits, asked Singh if he thought the murder was linked to Dhaliwal’s work at RSG.
“I am not saying that. I am saying that, in general, it just shook me up,” he replied.
“But did you continue to do business with RSG after that in terms of loans?” continued the lawyer. “No, we shut it down dramatically,” said Singh. “We really pushed back on everything.”
Simon Bieber, a lawyer for Grewal, said it would be wrong to link the murder to the current legal battles.
“Mr. Dhaliwal’s death was tragic and his parents lost their only child,” Bieber told National Post by email. “The perpetrators of that crime have been arrested and are facing serious charges. To the extent that you are interested in finding out their motivations, their criminal trial would be the best place to start.
“But raising Mr. Dhaliwal’s death alongside the current civil lawsuits and attempting to draw a connection is not only improper, and likely defamatory, it will force a young man’s family to unnecessarily revisit the tragedy.”
Asked whether Peel Regional Police are looking into possible ties between the murder and the recent cases, the force’s media office noted that the Dhaliwal case is still before the courts. “No further information can be provided at this time to protect the integrity of the ongoing court proceedings,” said Const. Laurie McCann.
In December 2023, Peel Police confirmed that someone had fired shots at Grewal’s house. No injuries were reported. A lawyer representing Grewal at the time told the Brampton Guardian the incident was one of a series of shootings at homes of prominent citizens in the area.
And two sources who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity around the matter told the National Post that his home was again targeted by a gunman recently, with no one hurt.
Grewal has no reason to believe that the 2023 shooting had anything to do with the allegations in the recent lawsuits, said Bieber. He “recognizes that there are elements of society who do not follow the law,” which is one reason he wants to ensure media reporting on the current cases is not “intended to inflame the situation,” the lawyer said.
The Law Society has applied to have Grewal’s licence to practice suspended to prevent a “significant risk of harm to the public” while its own investigation proceeds. It alleges the lawyer “has participated in, facilitated or failed to prevent mortgage fraud,” misled clients, lenders and other lawyers about money he held in trust, misappropriated client funds and provided fake title insurance to lenders.
Grewal voluntarily gave up his licence pending a decision on the suspension request by the separate Law Society Tribunal.
The regulator’s moves came after a stream of legal actions were launched in recent months against Grewal, RSG Law, lawyer Davinder Khattra, who now owns the firm, and others. The Society has already suspended Khattra’s licence.
None of the recent allegations has been proven in court. Lawyers for Grewal have said that the 40-year-old had limited involvement in the RSG firm’s day-to-day operations after handing it over to lawyer Khattra, 29, in 2024 and that the various lawsuits are a result of the “falling out” that can happen in business transactions.
Meanwhile, the allegations against Grewal and colleagues took other unusual turns recently.
One of the judges handling the numerous cases warned that the matter needs to be handled more rapidly to avoid “catastrophic” damage to the legal system.
The Law Society should act more quickly – not in “geological” time – to investigate the charges as a whole, rather than leaving the courts to deal with each new one piecemeal, said Justice Sean Dunphy of the Ontario Superior Court. Lawyers’ trust funds are supposed to be a “gold-standard” safe place for clients’ money, but the lawsuits have repeatedly made allegations of misappropriation, he noted.
“If that basic assumption of trust underlying our financial and legal system is undermined and not zealously safeguarded, the consequences to the rule of law and the broader economy are potentially catastrophic,” the judge said in one of his court orders.
Evidence emerged as well that Grewal’s own father-in-law has become a legal adversary, his lawyer predicting recently he would be involved in “a lot” of legal wrangling with Grewal.
During another cross-examination by Greenspoon-Soer in the National Bank case, Kailash Kasal detailed how Grewal had taken over supervision of two truck stops his father-in-law owned, in Chatham, Ont., and Belleville, Ont. Kasal said he had no knowledge of how $195,000 in allegedly tainted money ended up in the account of one of the companies, transferred from RSG Law. And he said he had also never given authority for millions in mortgages to be taken out on the two properties.
“We’re going to be involved in a lot of litigation with Mr. Grewal,” Michael Simaan, Kasal’s lawyer, said at one point in the deposition.
Kasal, whose daughter works for his company, said he had not spoken to his son-in-law since June because of the legal matters, but refused to expand on what he called “personal” affairs.
Bieber told the Post Grewal is now separated from his wife, but does not want to comment on the situation and asks that his family’s privacy be respected.
Kasal said he was “working on” getting back control of the two truck-stop properties, though Grewal still oversaw them.
“Why is it that you would need to have someone who is currently being sued for over $2 million in fraud still involved in managing your business operation, (when) you say you knew nothing about the fraud that was going on?” asked Greenspoon-Soer.
“Don’t answer that,” Simaan told his client, as the examination moved on to other topics.
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