Toronto, Sep 25 (IANS): An associate of India-born Punjabi singer K.S. Makhan was sentenced to six years in jail for attempting to smuggle heroin into Canada from India, a media report said.

In July this year, the British Columbia Supreme Court convicted Hardev Sihota of attempting to smuggle heroin through Vancouver airport when he arrived on a flight from India on April 22, 2010, the Voice Online reported on Thursday.

He was sentenced to a six-year term on Wednesday.

Sihota's suitcase had a false bottom that had two plastic bags with two kilograms of heroin worth 645,000 Canadian dollars (US$484,067).

"The only reasonable inference to be drawn from the evidence that I do accept is that Mr. Sihota was an active participant in a scheme to bring narcotics from India to Canada and that he was aware at all times that he was bringing narcotics to Canada and that those narcotics were being distributed here," the judge said in a ruling.

The ruling noted that Makhan hired Sihota for his services as an electrician.

Sihota's lawyer Rajdeep Basra told The Province newspaper that his client would be deported to India once he completed his sentence as he was not a Canadian citizen.