Three gangsters blamed for violence on Vancouver’s south slope in 2008 were found guilty Thursday on a series of gun charges stemming from a major Vancouver Police undercover investigation. Boby Sanghera and his cousins Navdip and Savdip Sanghera were each convicted on several counts that resulted from the police department’s Project Rebellion. Two other co-accused, Charanjit Rangi and Jaspreet Virk, were found not guilty by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes, though she said she was “highly suspicious” of their activities at the time. Outside court, Boby’s dad Udham Sanghera — who police allege is the patriarch of the “Sanghera crime group” — said his family would appeal the convictions. Charges against Udham Sanghera and his purported lieutenant Gordon Taylor were stayed by the Crown without explanation in April 2011. Udham Sanghera is now suing Vancouver police. Holmes read out a summary of her 55-page written ruling as relatives of the accused, undercover police and reporters filled the courtroom. She said the evidence against Boby and his cousins convinced her of their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Boby and Navdip Sanghera were convicted of illegally possessing three loaded, semi-automatic handguns when their Chrysler was pulled over by police on Nov. 8, 2008. The guns, a CZ 100, a Raven and a Ruger, were hidden in a compartment behind the glove box, Holmes said. “The guns were loaded and ready to fire,” she said, adding that police also found other tools of the trade — an extra magazine, a balaclava and several gloves — in the vehicle. She found that “there was a compelling circumstantial case that Boby Sanghera knew about the guns and had a measure of control over them.” She convicted Navdip of possessing the same guns because his DNA was later found on two of them, which “supports no other rational inference” than his guilt. Both Rangi and Virk were in the vehicle as well, but Holmes said there was some doubt from the evidence that they knew the guns were there. Savdip Sanghera was convicted of transferring a fourth firearm, a combat semi-automatic CZ 85, to another person on Jan. 31, 2009. Holmes accepted expert testimony from a Vancouver sergeant who said he recognized Savdip’s voice on intercepted calls, during which he discussed selling the gun. Crown prosecutor Mark Sheardown argued that Navdip was also on the wiretaps talking about being in possession of the CZ-85. But Holmes ruled that the comments could have been taken another way and acquitted Navdip on the additional count. All five accused joked with each other and gestured to relatives in the gallery throughout the afternoon. The Sanghera trio will be back in court May 25 for sentencing. They are expected to get double-time credit for more than three years in pre-trial custody. During the five-month trial, Holmes heard about the gangster cat-and-mouse game on Vancouver’s south slope that led to the police undercover operation and the vehicle stop in November 2008. Vancouver Police Sgt. Dale Weidman, who headed Project Rebellion, testified that he had a reasonable belief someone in the vehicle was about to shoot one of their rivals that night. He said there were three gangs targeted in the probe — the Sanghera group, the Adiwal group and the Malli or Buttar group. At the time, the Sanghera group was at odds with both the Adiwal group and the Malli-Buttar group, Weidman explained. There had been a number of shootings resulting from the conflicts, some of which were witnessed by Vancouver police officers doing surveillance, he said. Just before the arrests on Nov. 8, 2008, a confidential source told police that the Sangheras were in “hunt mode,” armed and wearing bulletproof vests, as they looked for a gangster linked to the Adiwal group. That’s when police moved in to prevent more violence, Weidman said.
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