Photo: 123RF
An Indian community leader has been left shaken after a man believed to be a gang member visited his South Auckland home on Wednesday night and threatened him over an ongoing civil dispute with a tenant renting a commercial property.
Davinder Singh Rahal, former chairperson of the New Zealand Indian Business Association, was having dinner with his wife at home near Manukau when he heard a knock on the door.
"When we opened the door, I instinctively sensed the individual was a gang member," Rahal said. "After confirming my identity, he threatened [me] and told me to stay away from my tenant with whom I am having a dispute over unpaid liabilities.
"The individual told me I am interrupting their shared business, and, for my well-being, I shouldn't interrupt it. I later noticed a gang patch on his jacket. He also had a hand hidden behind his back, which made me very nervous and uneasy."
"The man was repeatedly saying, 'Stay away for your well-being' in an aggressive and threatening manner until my wife took out her phone to record the incident.
"At this point the man ran, jumped over the gate, got in a car and fled with his accomplice driver."
Davinder Singh Rahal Photo: Supplied
Terrified, the couple immediately called the police and filed an incident report.
Police confirmed they are investigating the complaint.
"Police enquiries are ongoing following a report of a threat made towards a person," a police spokesperson said. "At this stage enquiries are underway to determine the exact circumstances surrounding the incident."
The New Zealand Indian Business Association has since expressed concern over the increasing influence of gangs in New Zealand public life.
"We are very worried about the [purported] involvement of gangs in settling what is essentially a dispute between two private parties," the association said in a statement. "There are ample mechanisms in [the] New Zealand justice system to sort out such disputes."
Rahal is well-known in the Indian community and was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in 2012 for services to the community.
He was also a justice of peace, but surrendered his warrant after the Auckland High Court ordered him to pay nearly $1 million in damages to buyers of a property that suffered from weather issues he sold in 2020.
He has appealed against the ruling, with a hearing scheduled for 2025.
"If this can happen to someone like me ... others are even more vulnerable," Rahal said.
"If this becomes the norm, people will start hiring gangs to settle personal disputes instead of going through the justice system.
"This incident has stripped away my independence, forcing me to lock myself indoors, afraid to step outside. I am genuinely scared for my life."