CANADA’S MOST WANTED: $50K reward for arrest of man in Mississauga murder

A man wanted in connection with the murder of a young woman who was gunned down as she worked the night shift at a Mississauga gas station two years ago remains the subject of a Canada-wide manhunt.

A $50,000 reward remains in effect until June 2025 for information leading to the arrest of Dharam Singh Dhaliwal, 31, considered by police to be possibly “armed and dangerous.” He’s wanted on a charge of first-degree murder.

Dhaliwal has been on the run from Peel Regional Police since the Dec. 3, 2022 shooting in which Pawanpreet Kaur, 21, of Brampton, was killed while working inside the kiosk at a Britannia and Creditview roads Petro-Canada in Mississauga’s north end.

He was included among Canada’s 25 most-wanted fugitives for the first time back in April, when he was No. 9 on the list.

Dhaliwal is No. 15 on the most-recent Canada’s Top 25 Most Wanted list revealed Wednesday as police in Toronto provided an update in the wake of a number of arrests and other developments.

The list is compiled periodically by the Canada-wide BOLO Program, which takes its name from a popular police term, “be on the lookout.” It seeks to “leverage social media, technology and innovative engagement to encourage citizens…to be on the lookout for Canada’s most wanted.”

BOLO was developed in partnership with police forces across Canada and Crime Stoppers programs.

Police say anyone who spots the wanted man is not to approach him, but rather call 911 immediately. Investigators also note that anyone found to be helping Dhaliwal evade police will face the same charges.

Speaking at a news conference in Toronto on Wednesday, BOLO Program director Maxime Langlois said cash rewards “are offered for any information leading to the arrests of the suspects, period. The eventual conviction of these accused has nothing to do with our rewards.”

Dharam Singh Dhaliwal, 31 (at right), is wanted for the murder of a Brampton woman who was shot to death as she worked at a Mississauga gas station in late 2022. (Photo: BOLO Program)

Kaur was shot multiple times just after 10:30 p.m. on the early December 2022 night as she worked at the gas station on the northeast corner of the busy north Mississauga intersection.

It was the 13th murder in Mississauga that year, and the 27th in Peel, and it sent shockwaves through a community that had already seen much gun violence in the previous months.

A customer found the Brampton woman suffering from gunshot wounds and called 911. Emergency crews arrived on the scene and attempted life-saving measures, but Kaur died of her injuries.

Peel police said earlier Dhaliwal had been on the run and missing since September 2022, a couple of months before the murder. Investigators allege his disappearance was intentional and part of a larger plan to murder Kaur.

Pawanpreet Kaur, 21, of Brampton, was shot and killed while working at a gas station.

“The murder of Pawanpreet Kaur forever changed her family’s life and significantly affected our community,” Peel police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said in a news release in April, adding police are “asking for the public’s assistance with information on Dharam Dhaliwal as her family deserves answers and justice for this tragedy.”

Police have said the suspect in the slaying “wore a three-quarter-length dark winter jacket with a hood, dark winter boots, dark pants, a dark winter toque and white gloves.”

Furthermore, it appeared to investigators the man who pulled the trigger was smoking a cigarette at the time and he “did not pull the hood up over his head until shortly before shooting the victim at close range.”

In early 2023, police said two of Dhaliwal’s family members were arrested in Moncton in connection with the murder. They were charged with one count each of accessory to murder after the fact.

Anyone with information about Dhaliwal’s whereabouts is urged to call police at 905-453-2121, ext. 3205, 911 or Peel Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.