‘Planned to travel 31 countries’: Canadian Sikh on world bike tour dies in crash in Peru

Punjab native Raghbir Singh Bharowal, 42, who lived in Surrey, Canada, has died in a motorcycle accident in Peru.

BATHINDA: Punjab native Raghbir Singh Bharowal, 42, who lived in Surrey, Canada, has died in a motorcycle accident in Peru.Raghbir, a father of three, was a regulated Canadian immigration consultant. He was on a solo motorcycle tour for the past few weeks, which he called ‘Flying Khalsa World Tour’. He last posted a small clip on social media from Peru three days ago after which all contact was lost with him.Surrey-based journalist Gurpreet Singh Sahota said that his family got worried when they couldn’t contact him for days and began making inquiries. On Tuesday, they learnt of his death.Raghbir’s father Pritam Singh Bharowal, who also lives in Surrey but is in Ludhiana now to attend a wedding, told TOI that the adventure-seeker left on the world tour on his Harley three months ago and planned to travel to 31 countries.

Raghbir was to return to Canada for a few days before heading for Argentina, he said.“Three days ago, he called to inform us about his return to Canada but we couldn’t contact him after that. We contacted embassies and checked his GPS, which showed his last location in Trujillo city of Peru. We contacted Trujillo police, who informed us in the wee hours today that he had met with a fatal accident,” said Pritam Singh.Raghbir had migrated to Canada after doing his BTech in civil engineering from Guru Nanak Engineering college Ludhiana and pursued MTech from Windsor city in Ontario and subsequently got Canadian citizenship.Raghbir’s friend, Vancouver resident Gurwinder Singh, recalled that before moving out on his motorcycle tour, Raghbir and a number of his buddies gathered at the opening of a pizza store in Abbotsford city of British Columbia near Vancouver. “He regaled the group with videos and stories of his bike rides. We never thought that it would be our last meeting,” he said.