An Abbotsford man with a history of drug smuggling has been charged in the 2009 murder of his 40-year-old wife, IHIT announced Monday.
Iqbal Singh Gill, 50, was arrested Friday and charged over the weekend for the murder of his wife, Kulwinder Kaur Gill, a mother of two.
Kulwinder Kaur Gill was walking with Gill along Townshipline Road when she was run down by a pickup truck about 7:35 p.m. on April 28, 2009.
Her husband flagged down police and led them to a ditch where her body was found.
A truck believed to have been used in the crime was found about 90 minutes later.
Investigators determined the case was a murder conspiracy and pieced together enough evidence to support charges against Gill with first-degree murder.
A 26-year-old Abbotsford man, Gurpreet Singh Atwal and 28-year-old Surrey resident Jaspreet Singh Sohi have also been charged with first-degree murder.
A fourth man, 26-year-old Surrey resident Sukhpal Singh Johal has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact.
Gill is also before the courts on drug and gun charges laid after police executed a search warrant at an Abbotsford house he owned on March 17, 2011.
Inside the house, police found a submachine-gun, an assault rifle, a handgun, ammunition, 1,040 marijuana plants, $4,000 in cash, a bulletproof vest and a device for bypassing a BC Hydro meter to steal electricity.
Gill was charged with production of a controlled substance, possession for the purpose of trafficking, unauthorized possession of a firearm and two counts of possessing a prohibited weapon without a licence.
He is due back in Abbotsford Provincial Court on those charges on Sept. 12, 2013.
As well, the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office has also filed a suit against Gill and two other owners of the property, claiming it was purchased with the proceeds of crime and requesting B.C. Supreme Court to order it forfeited.
“Prior to May 17, 2011, proceeds from the sale of controlled substances were used to make material contributions to equity in the property,” the suit says.
Gill and the other owners got the down payment to purchase the property in 2003 “from the prior sale of marijuana,” says the suit.
“The property is an instrument of unlawful activity.”
Gill and the other defendants filed a response in court saying the down payment did not come from selling pot and that they had never been involved in growing marijuana.
“The defendants had no idea whatsoever about the use of this property for growing marijuana,” the response says. “The defendants rented a part of their property to persons who are now unknown who engaged in the growing of marijuana.”
Their response also says they “suffered financial loss and damages to their property due to the actions of the persons now unknown who rented the property.”
Gill also pleaded guilty in New York state in 1997 to conspiracy to distribute heroin.
Then active in a faction of the International Sikh Youth Federation, Gill was arrested in a Manhattan hotel room where agents found two kilograms of heroin.
Authorities at the time alleged his ISYF faction was involved in drug smuggling to support their separatist cause.
With files from Postmedia
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