Manjit Panghali’s cellphone was used on evening she went missing

Manjit Panghali’s cellphone, with her husband’s SIM card inside, was used after she went missing four years ago.

On Thursday, a Rogers employee testified that her handset with her SIM card inside was used on Oct. 18, 2006. It was the last day that Manjit was seen alive.

The next day, the same handset was used with her husband’s SIM card inside.

Manjit’s husband, Mukhtiar Panghali, is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court charged with second-degree murder and interference with a dead body in connection with his wife’s death.

Manjit disappeared after a prenatal yoga class and her burned body was found off Deltaport Way five days later.

Prosecutor Dennis Murray alleges that Panghali saw Manjit after her yoga class, killed her and put his SIM into her cellphone.

Sharon Barnes, who has worked for Rogers for 15 years, confirmed that the company can tell from its records which handset a SIM card – a subscriber identity module or portable memory chip – is in when a call is made or received.

Barnes said records show a Sony Ericsson handset was used with a SIM and phone number known to be Manjit’s in the two weeks before she went missing.

The last four calls from Manjit’s number were recorded between 6:43 and 6:50 p.m. on Oct. 18, 2006. She left home for her 7 p.m. yoga class at 6:30. The calls were made from the Sony handset to her home phone number.

The handset is next used to receive a text message sent to Panghali’s cell number at 2 p.m. the next day. That means Panghali’s SIM was in the Sony phone.

The phone was used with Panghali’s SIM until Jan. 22, 2007.

Delta police Sgt. Guy Leeson testified that the phone was taken from Panghali after the truck he was riding in, driven by his brother Sukh, was stopped in Richmond.

The Crown has finished presenting evidence in the case, but the trial continues.

The defence is expected to call evidence, if it chooses, next week.