A former Surrey, B.C., teacher who killed his pregnant wife and burned her body in 2006 has been granted full parole.
In 2011, Mukhtiar Singh Panghali, 51, was handed a life sentence for killing Manjit Kaur Panghali on convictions for second-degree murder and indignity to a body.
Days after killing his wife, Panghali went to the public with a tearful plea for help to find her.
At trial, the court heard he had left his four-year-old daughter alone at home while he disposed of the body. His wife’s burned remains were found on a beach in Delta five days after her death.
“This tells us everything we need to know about how ineffective the criminal legal system is in meting any kind of justice for victims of intimate partner and domestic violence,” Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Vancouver-based Battered Women’s Support Services, told Global News of the release.
“It is a painful confirmation of how little the criminal legal system cares about women victims of femicide.”
Panghali was granted day parole in July 2022, and has since obtained full-time work with an unnamed company, according to the Parole Board of Canada.
In its release decision, dated Oct. 6, the board said it believed he would “present an undue risk to society if released on full parole” and that his release would “contribute to the protection of society by facilitating your reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen.”
The board found that Panghali had successfully participated in several programs while incarcerated, and despite an earlier reticence had now “accepted responsibility for (his) actions and choices.”
However, the release decision also flagged several areas of concern — particularly when it comes to relationships with women.
“You are assessed as a high risk of violence towards a partner,” it states.
“Should you involve yourself in a relationship, this would be the high-risk situation for you and must be monitored closely by your (case management team) through the relevant special condition to restrict you from initiating relationships with women without the permission of your parole supervisor.”
The decision also highlighted the severity of the offence for which he was convicted, which it noted had a lifelong impact on the victim’s family.
“The extreme escalation of violence resulting in the death of the victim, along with an unborn child, are highly concerning to the Board,” the decision states.
“Particulars of your conviction also aggravate your risk: you fantasized about killing your victim for several months prior to the offence, planned the murder and followed through on these plans.”
MacDougall called the release decision “exhausting” and “enraging,” describing it as yet another sign that the justice system does not take intimate partner violence seriously.
“We have, clearly, a regression in how we are thinking of domestic and intimate partner violence and femicide,” she said.
“I have been watching them release high-risk offenders, release men who have killed their female partners, for decades — and always with this caveat, with the potential violence that remains, so it ends up being left to the community to have to navigate that risk.”
MacDougall said the majority of domestic violence cases don’t even end up in the criminal justice system, and that there is an urgent need for more funding and support outside that system.
“The biggest thing for us to continue to work on are community-based interventions that we can hopefully have resourced more thoroughly and fully from our provincial and federal governments through the national action plan that’s currently in negotiation with the provinces and territories,” she said.
A recent report by the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability found that the number of killings of women and girls involving men in Canada was up by 27 per cent in 2022 compared with before the pandemic in 2019.
The report found that the number of women and girls killed in 2022 was 184, up from 148 in 2019.
Panghali’s release comes with a number of conditions, including a ban on contact with his wife’s family, including their daughter, without the permission of his parole supervisor.
He must also report any romantic, sexual or platonic relationships with women, and may not live with anyone without prior approval of his parole supervisor.
Other conditions include a ban on buying or drinking alcohol and the requirement he participate in a domestic violence treatment plan.
— with files from Sawyer Bogdan