Story of man who lied to get the refugee status in Canada.

Baljit Ram, a failed refugee, said that he lied about him being a member of the Babbar Khalsa group in order to persuade Canadian authorities to let him stay in the country.

Ram told The Vancouver Sun Monday that he wasn’t even a Sikh, but claimed to be one in order to have a compelling tale for the Immigration and Refugee Board after he arrived illegally in Canada in the year 1998.

Ram had been living underground since eight months until he was stabbed near Surrey Central SkyTrain Station on the 30th of September. He said that though he was a Hindu, he lied that he was a Babbar Khalsa member when he came here first.

Ram said that his friends advised him to pretend to be with a Sikh militant group that has been fighting for Khalistan and by doing so; he could be accepted as a refugee in Canada.

Ram said in broken English that he lied because he wanted to stay in the country and believes that everyone who comes to Canada lies. He also said that he doesn’t even know what Babbar Khalsa is.

After the 42-year old came to light because of the stabbing, police officers found that there was an online warrant for his arrest. The arrest warrant was issued by the Canada Border Services Agency just this past January, in spite of the fact that Ram didn’t report for his deportation back in 2000.

The warrant request document states that Ram was identified as a member of Babbar Khalsa, a group which is banned in Canada since the year 2003. Ram was then interviewed at Royal Columbian hospital by a CBSA official, who didn’t mention anything about Ram changing his story. When Ram was asked if he told to the official that he was originally lying, he said that the officer never asked him this in the meeting.

Ram told The Sun that in the decade he has been in Canada, he has never worked and lives on handouts from friends. On September 30, he told the CSBA agent that he had been paid by the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey. However, temple president Balwant Singh Gill denied any such payment.

According to court files obtained from Ottawa Monday, not only did Ram originally claimed to be a Babbar Khalsa, he reiterated his position when he sought a judicial review of the refugee board decision to the Federal Court of Canada in the year 2000.