A West Hempstead father and son were hit with federal arson charges Thursday, after they were caught on their own surveillance cameras causing the fire that scorched their shop, federal authorities said.
The father, Narinder, 56, and his son Jawhar Singh, 29, who authorities said had squatted in the South Richmond Hill shop during a contentious 3-year landlord-tenant proceeding, did not enter a plea to the crime in Brooklyn federal court.
The father had been taken to the hospital for a medical issue and was expected to appear in court on Friday morning.
“This was a crime done out of revenge,” federal prosecutor Daniel Amzallag said during the initial appearance for Jawhar Singh. The two were angry over an eviction notice for their printing business, he said.
Robert Caliendo, the Singh’s attorney, declined to comment on the charges.
According to a federal complaint, the Singh family had an ongoing dispute with the landlord of the 101st Avenue business since 2023.
Print shop in South Richmond Hill that, prosecutors say, had been set fire with a hot plate and paper towels by a West Hempstead father and son. Credit: U.S. Attorney’s office, Eastern District. Credit: US District Court, Eastern District of NY
The property owner claimed that the Singhs had signed fraudulent leases and lied about, among other things, paying the owner $8,000 in rent and inviting him to Narinder Singh’s daughter’s wedding, according to court papers.
On Feb. 17, the Singhs made a last-ditch effort to stay in the building but were ordered by a Queens housing court judge to vacate the premises.
Shortly after midnight on Feb. 18, FDNY fire marshal David Lebowitz, assigned to a federal task force, said that the shop caught fire, destroying the interior of the business and causing some structural damage.
During the investigation, fire marshals checked the internal video security recording, which Narinder Singh told them about, and discovered that the father and son deliberately set the fire, prosecutors said.
Lebowitz said in his affidavit that he saw on the video Narinder and Jawahar Singh set a hot plate on a table, then put loose paper towel rolls on top of it and plug it into a smart plug that could be turned on remotely.
Screengrabs in the criminal complaint show the rolls of paper towels on the hot plate burning on the table.
“The defendant used a cellphone or other device to activate the plug,” the prosecutor said.
Four hours later, the same video camera recorded the paper towels bursting into flames just after midnight on Feb. 18.
Jawahar Singh, who are originally from India, was found by authorities hiding in a crawl space in his West Hempstead home when they went to arrest him, Amzallag said.
The prosecutor said that he overstayed his tourist visa in 2019, according to prosecutors, and federal officials placed an immigration detention order against him on Thursday.
Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo allowed the son to be released on $100,000 bond. His father is expected to appear in court on Friday.