Thind is charged with one count of extortion relating to an alleged incident on January 26.

Indo-Canadian: Arundeep Thind, an Indian-Canadian man who was arrested and recently charged with extortion threats targeting South Asian businesses in Canada, has claimed that he is innocent and that the police are wrongly portraying him as a “high-level gangster”.

The 39-year-old Indian-origin man was among five people of Punjab origin whose arrest was announced by Peel Regional Police’s extortion taskforce on February 8 in connection with a laundry list of offences, including extortion, possession of firearms, and fraud.

Thind, who is charged with one count of extortion relating to an alleged incident on January 26, is out on bail after spending two weeks in jail and has reached out to the Canadian media saying he is not a “criminal”.

Thind, a music producer, in an interview with CTV News said, “I have family too. I have kids too. My kids are crying, ‘Daddy’s not a criminal.’ You guys (the media and police) showed (my photo) that I’m a criminal. I’m not.” He further said that he has never been involved in organised crime and extortion as concerns are being raised over an alarming escalation of extortion threats against Indian and South Asian business communities.

Thind says that contrary to the charges against him, he is a victim of these threats instead and that days before his arrest, his friend, a restaurant owner in Brampton who was targeted by the extortionists, gave Thind the phone number and asked him to call the people harassing him.

He spoke to the person on the phone who coerced him into going to a car dealership to request an extortion payment on their behalf, Thind told the news channel.

At the dealership, he simply handed a phone over to the owner of the car company. “I told them, ‘I want nothing more to do with this. You guys speak to each other and leave me out of it,’” he said. It was then that the police arrived and arrested him, Thind said.

On being asked why he posted a series of photos and videos on his social media holding a gun, Thind told the channel that the picture was taken years ago while filming a music video and that “the gun wasn’t even real”.

Thind believes police are wrongly painting him as a “high-level gangster” and using his mugshot adding that he has not met and is not connected to the other four people charged by Peel Police, namely Gagan Ajit Singh, Anmoldeep Singh, Hashmeet Kaur, and Lymanjot Kaur.

(With IANS inputs)