Manny Buttar told a restaurant patron that he killed for a living and had gotten “rid” of gangster Bindy Johal

Manny Buttar told a restaurant patron that he killed for a living and had gotten “rid” of gangster Bindy Johal, B.C. Supreme Court heard Tuesday.Pardeep Dhillon recounted the night that he was left bleeding and dazed after Buttar allegedly began pummeling him in a Surrey restaurant.Dhillon said Buttar and two friends offered to buy a round at the India Kitchen Restaurant on Nov. 6, 2006 after learning Dhillon and the restaurant owner had the same last names as Buttar’s two pals.He said he was making small talk with the trio, who were strangers, when he asked Buttar what he did for a living.“He said ‘I kill people for a living,’” Dhillon told Justice Kathleen Ker, saying he began to laugh because he assumed Buttar was joking.He said Buttar repeated that his profession was hit man.“I said I had a cousin and he used to do the same thing, but he is dead now,” Dhillon replied, saying he told Buttar his cousin was Johal.“Mr. Buttar was very upset.”Dhillon said Buttar began punching and slapping him as he urged the man to “remember” his name.“He mentioned that ‘I got rid of him and I can get rid of you,’” Dhillon testified.No one has ever been charged in the December 1998 execution of Johal, an admitted cocaine trafficker gunned down at a Vancouver nightclub.But Buttar’s younger brother Bal confessed to The Vancouver Sun in 2004 that he had arranged the hit on Johal even though he was working under the gangster in the “Indo-Canadian Mafia” at the time.Vancouver police have described Manny Buttar as the leader of a mid-level drug trafficking gang that has been involved in a violent conflict with two rival groups on the city’s south slope in recent years.The undercover probe dubbed Project Rebellion has led to dozens of arrests of members of all three gangs this year alone.Buttar is facing three charges related to the 2006 assault — including assault with a weapon, uttering threats and using an imitation firearm.
His co-accused, Tirathpal Dhillon, pleaded guilty to assault as the trial opened in New Westminster on Monday.Pardeep Dhillon said he saw his namesake pull a gun out while Buttar continued to beat on him. “The magazine fell out and I was able to kick it,” the victim testified. “Mr. Dhillon looked like he was scared … . It was almost like he wanted to scare me and he did.”Under cross-examination, Dhillon admitted he was an alcoholic with convictions for assault, impaired driving and breaches of probation.Buttar’s defence lawyer Karen Bastow suggested that Dhillon’s account “seems incredibly unlikely.She said no one would admit to a stranger that he had committed murder.“So Manny Buttar says ‘I am a killer and I capped Bindy Johal.’ Is that what happened?” she asked“Yes,” replied Dhillon.She also said it was unlikely he had the fortitude to kick a clip away while he was being slapped and punched.“That’s pretty fancy footwork Mr. Dhillon for a guy that is not part of the life,” Bastow said.She suggested someone else punched Dhillon and Buttar was not even near the booth where the attack occurred.But Dhillon strongly disagreed, pointing to Buttar as his attacker several times.
Also Tuesday, a waitress at the restaurant who called 911 claimed she saw Buttar — not his associate — with the gun.Rosie Nand’s emergency call was played in court in which she could be heard saying “there is a big guy beating another guy … he is bleeding but I think he is okay.”