{"id":154695,"date":"2026-03-05T23:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/154695\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T23:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:42:09","slug":"father-and-son-hit-with-federal-arson-charges-with-setting-fire-to-queens-print-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/154695\/","title":{"rendered":"Father and son hit with federal arson charges with setting fire to Queens print shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"father-and-son\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Video footage shows fire spreading in a Queens print shop on Feb. 18, 2026. Narinder and Jahwar Singh, a father and son who were allegedly squatting at the property, are accused of setting the blaze intentionally. <\/p>\n

Photo via U.S. District Court<\/p>\n

A father-and-son duo is accused of setting fire to their Queens<\/a> print shop in the midst of eviction proceedings to get them kicked out of the space.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The criminal complaint against Narinder Singh and his son Jahwar Singh was unsealed on Thursday. Jahwar Singh appeared in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where he was ultimately released on a $100,000 bond secured by his mother and sister.<\/p>\n

His father, Narinder Singh, who needed medical attention and went to the hospital following his arrest, was brought to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

In video footage recovered following the Feb. 18 fire, the Singhs are seen in the print shop, located on 101st Avenue in Richmond Hill, standing at a table on which is a hotplate, rolls of paper towels, and other items. The two move the table to another part of the shop, according to law enforcement, and several minutes later, one of the rolls is seen on top of the hotplate, with four others nearby. The men then leave the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four hours later, around 12:30 p.m., the paper towel on top of the hot plate catches fire.\u00a0
\n\"\"Video footage shows the fire starting in Narinder and Jawahar\u2019s Queens print shop.Photo via U.S. District Court\n<\/p>\n

According to the criminal complaint, nobody entered the print shop between the time the Singhs left and the time the fire began. Prosecutors allege they used a smart plug to remotely activate the hotplate and start the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Narinder and Jahwar Singh are charged with malicious use of fire or explosives to damage or destroy property used in interstate commerce.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a crime done out of revenge,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Amzallag said at the court appearance on Thursday, citing the \u201cacrimonious and highly personal\u201d eviction proceedings that resulted in the Singhs getting evicted the same day as the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though Jahwar Singh secured his release, he may be facing proceedings beyond commercial eviction.\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Amzallag said, an immigration judge ordered him detained. He and family members are in the process of seeking asylum, his defense attorney said, because his family had a disagreement with India\u2019s BJP Party, with which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is affiliated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amzallag sought Jahwar Singh\u2019s detention, noting that he was found \u201chiding in a crawl space\u201d during his arrest and could flee, either to his home country of India or to a third country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robert Caliendo, Jahwar Singh\u2019s court-appointed attorney, cited his family ties to New York City and Long Island \u2014 he lives with his father in West Hempstead, and his married to a U.S. citizen, although she\u2019s currently not living with him \u2014 and the family\u2019s persecution in India as reasons he\u2019s not a flight risk.\u201dThey came here to get away from that,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caliendo also said his client would be able to continue working because he actually works with his mother, who owns a separate print shop in Richmond Hill.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the other business is now ash does not necessarily affect his ability to be productively employed,\u201d Caliendo said.\u00a0
\n\"\"Damage to a Queens print shop following a Feb. 18, 2026, fire started by a paper towel roll left on a hotplate.Photo via U.S. District Court\n<\/p>\n

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo ordered Jahwar Singh not to speak to his father about the case, imposed a curfew, and ordered him not to travel outside of New York City and Long Island. She also ordered Jahwar Singh to stay away from the now-destroyed print shop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the status of Jahwar Singh\u2019s immigration proceeding, his attorney said following Thursday\u2019s proceeding that he couldn\u2019t say what to expect.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLike a lot of people dealing with this immigration question, we simply don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Caliendo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Video footage shows fire spreading in a Queens print shop on Feb. 18, 2026. Narinder and Jahwar Singh,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3094,38013,64072,64073,64074,64075,64076,64077,12242,64078,9,24,63,64079,122,124,2009,123,64080,64081,64082],"class_list":{"0":"post-154695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-arson","9":"tag-asylum-seekers","10":"tag-bjp-persecution","11":"tag-commercial-property-crime","12":"tag-eviction-dispute","13":"tag-father-son-arrested","14":"tag-federal-charges","15":"tag-flight-risk","16":"tag-immigration-court","17":"tag-malicious-use-of-fire","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-print-shop-fire","22":"tag-queens","23":"tag-queens-headlines","24":"tag-queens-new-york","25":"tag-queens-news","26":"tag-revenge-crime","27":"tag-richmond-hill-queens","28":"tag-smart-plug-arson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}