Five men jump him at Vancouver sports event

Ethan Baron, The Province

Police are searching for five men who beat a Bollywood actor so viciously in front of spectators at a Vancouver sports tournament that he lost his eye.

The attack allegedly arose out of a land dispute in India.

Jagdarshan Samra, 62, was targeted at the Ross Street Sikh Temple on Sunday just before 5 p.m., police said yesterday. Samra, an actor and producer in India's film industry, was attending a tournament of soccer and the South Asian sport kabaddi.

Five men beat Samra in front of a large crowd that included children, said police spokesman Const. Tim Fanning.

One of the assailants used a weapon, reported to be a baton or a pipe.

Investigators have not yet identified the perpetrators.

"There are some leads in this, at least to who one of the suspects is, but nobody's been arrested yet," Fanning said.

Samra was released from hospital Wednesday, and is recovering at home in Surrey.

"He's doing a lot better now," said his son Vikram. "He started eating, he started walking around."

Samra for years split his time between India and B.C., but is now living and working here, his son said.

But on a trip to his home village in Punjab, Samra discovered a family had taken over his family's land, putting up a house and refusing to leave or provide compensation, said Paul Dhillon, editor of The Link newspaper, which serves the South Asian community in B.C.

Samra filed a lawsuit against the alleged squatters, and returned to B.C. to await the legal process, Dhillon said.

"It kind of came to its ugly conclusion at this sports tournament," Dhillon said.

He described Samra as a "very nice guy" dedicated to arts and culture, adding, "he's never known for any kind of violence."