Vancouver police charge 26-year officer in $3-million fraud case

PENTICTON — Vancouver police arrested one of their own Thursday and charged Const. Kalwinder “Kal” Dosanjh with nine counts of fraud, theft and breach of trust after a two-and-a-half-year covert investigation that the force kept in-house..Chief Const. Steve Rai told a Friday morning briefing that investigators have identified 19 victims so far and that those people alone account for more than $3 million in alleged losses. He said more victims may still come forward. Crown counsel approved the charges Thursday against Dosanjh, 50, and co-accused Sarabjit Singh Gill, 51, of Surrey.Dosanjh is a 26-year member of the Vancouver Police Department and the founder and CEO of the Surrey-based KidsPlay Youth Foundation, a charity he launched in 2015 to steer young people away from drugs, gangs and violence. He last worked in the traffic section in an outreach role. Police seized his service weapon when they arrested him on a planned traffic stop in Surrey..The BC Prosecution Service says Dosanjh faces four counts of fraud over $5,000, four counts of theft over $5,000 and one count of breach of trust by a public officer. Gill is charged on six of the fraud and theft counts. The alleged offences run from December 8, 2017, to July 25, 2025, at or near Vancouver, Surrey and other locations in British Columbia.Charge documents tie some counts to investors in property developments named as Azura, Queen’s Park and Sahara. Two further counts allege fraud over $5,000 and theft from KidsPlay itself. Rai said one of the charges “relates to that foundation” and that Dosanjh and Gill were co-accused on three of the four charge groups. Their relationship at the time of the alleged offences, investigators said, was a business relationship around housing development.Supt. Mike Ritchie, who led the investigation, said the majority of the identified victims were investors with the two co-accused. He declined to give personal details. Asked whether Dosanjh preyed on members of the community, an investigator said that would be fair to say. “When you speak the same language, sometimes it’s easier.”.Rai said the force received information from multiple victims in December 2023 and that he then opened a dedicated investigation. The department notified the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner at the outset. Business dealings named in the file began in 2017. Victims started to question those dealings later. The department was not made aware internally until 2023.Rai said he discussed the file with the RCMP. He kept it at VPD because a probe of that length and complexity needed a large department’s resources and expertise, and the RCMP was managing regional transition work. “There’s only a large department [that] can lead that kind of investigation in this province. That’s the RCMP or ourselves.”Dosanjh has no prior criminal investigation on the public record, Ritchie said. Questions about internal discipline were referred to the complaint commissioner.Rai suspended Dosanjh immediately Thursday night under the Police Act and stripped him of his police powers in the province. He has recommended that the Vancouver Police Board suspend him without pay. That decision belongs to the board. Officers said the statutory process runs about 30 days and includes a chance for Dosanjh to be heard..Dosanjh appeared before a judge Thursday evening and was released into the community on court-imposed conditions. He is due back at Vancouver Provincial Court on September 17 to fix a date. A publication ban covers the bail hearing.The Civil Forfeiture Office has been engaged “for quite some time,” Rai said. Ritchie described a parallel civil track that will now move as the criminal case proceeds through the courts.Alliance Lawyers, acting for Dosanjh, said Thursday he “has committed no crime and is innocent of any wrongdoing.” The firm said an arrest is not evidence of guilt.Dosanjh’s public profile sat well beyond a regular patrol constable. KidsPlay’s own materials list him as a former undercover officer and a veteran of financial-crime and drug units. He collected community awards, including a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal, and sat on boards that included Sahara Services Society. Civil court records already list Dosanjh and Gill as partners in property ventures that have drawn lawsuits. Both men have denied wrongdoing in those civil files.His wife, Sandy Dosanjh, a certified personal trainer, competitive bodybuilder and KidsPlay volunteer, joined the Conservative Party of Surrey council slate on August 17. Mayoral candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa called her a “star candidate” and tied her pitch to youth work and fully funded police. Kal Dosanjh posted his own endorsement of her run on August 13, saying the family had lived in Surrey since 2010 and that the city needed “a voice to the working class families.”Sandy Dosanjh spoke near their West Newton home Thursday while officers searched the residence and carried out boxes. .Hours after Friday’s police briefing, the Conservative Party of Surrey issued a statement saying she is no longer a candidate..“As Sandy is no longer a candidate for public office, we ask that her privacy be respected at this time so that she is able to focus on her family,” the party said. “The Conservative Party of Surrey will be making no further comments on this matter.” Civic election day is October 17.Rai said the arrest “strikes at the heart of the public trust we work hard every day to earn and maintain.” He called the allegations inconsistent with the department’s values. Officers inside the force, he said, are angry and disappointed. The South Asian community, he added, has a culture of helping people, and that trust “can be manipulated.”Insp. Raj Jaswal led victim and witness management. He said the 19 identified victims “stood shoulder to shoulder” from dealings that stretch back to 2017. Keeping a two-and-a-half-year investigation covert, Rai said, depended on those witnesses and on the community not tipping the officer.VPD secondary-employment policy requires any outside job to be approved up the chain to the deputy in charge of support services and ultimately the chief. Rai would not say whether department resources were used in the alleged schemes. That question, he said, is before the courts.The investigation is not finished. Ritchie would not put a dollar figure on the internal cost. He called that cost “irrelevant compared to the cost of the victims, and their families, and their lives.” Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 604-717-2601.None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Vancouver police charge 26-year officer in $3-million fraud case

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