In court on Thursday, the husband of a Vernon woman murdered more than 30 years ago admitted to playing a part in the aftermath of her killing.
Fifty-nine-year-old Paramjit Singh Bogarh was extradited from the U.S. and charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
In court, however, he pleaded guilty to helping his brother escape after Narinder Bogarh allegedly murdered Saminder Kaur Bogarh on New Year’s Eve in 1986.
The courtroom was packed with family members of the victim.
Saminder, Paramjit’s wife through an arranged marriage, was 26 years old when she was brutally stabbed to death.
Lawyers said that the couple’s two-year-old son Manpreet was in the home at the time, and that Paramjit returned from work to find his pregnant wife’s body in the bathroom.
“His young son Manpreet had been wandering through the house leaving behind bloody footprints and handprints as he went,” Crown prosecutor Ann Katrine Saettler said.
“During the course of the stabbing, Narinder cut his own hand, likely as a result of his hand sliding down the knife blade, slippery with blood during the stabbing,” she added.
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Manpreet Nahal, who is now an adult, told court that in the hours he was left with his mother’s lifeless body, he did everything he could to try to get her to wake up.
“I’ve never been able to wake up from this nightmare,” he said. “I’ve been haunted since, that I was not able to do a single thing to help her.
“Did she not escape that house that night because she refused to leave me in that house to meet the fate that she did?” Manpreet asked.
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He said he always knew he was going to have to face his mother’s killers.
“I lived in fear for many years as a boy that they were going to come back to kill me, to finish their job and get rid of the only witness to their heinous crime,” he said.
“In school, I’d be scared to be alone in the schoolyard, not knowing when my time was going to come,” he added.
“All my life I did not get to know my own mother,” he said. “Everything about her has always been a mystery to me: what did her voice sound like? Do I look like her? Do we have similar personalities?”
Court heard that Narinder’s blood was found throughout the home and on the gown Saminder was wearing when she was killed.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Narinder murdered Saminder sometime between 2:30 p.m. and 11:40 p.m.
“When RCMP arrived at the scene, Paramjit did not advise police that Narinder was in the area, nor did he tell them of his belief that his brother had committed murder,” Saettler said.
Court heard Paramjit falsely told police that his two-year-old son had said that a white man had committed the murder. Manpreet spoke only Punjabi at the time and was not able to be directly questioned by officers.
Narinder then fled the Okanagan and flew to India on Jan. 2, 1987, according to court documents. He’s believed to still be there.
Manpreet said that over the last 33 years, he has not received a single visit or phone call from Paramjit, his biological father.
“No shred of remorse, not any concern for my well-being,” he said. “He lived out the prime years of his life as a free man, started a new family, while the ones he hurt were left broken, believing they would never get justice.”
When given the opportunity to speak in court, Paramjit said he had nothing to say.
Defence and Crown lawyers made a joint submission for sentencing. They asked for the equivalent of five years, with three years credit for time served.
The judge agreed with their submission, which means Bogarh will still serve another two years.
The allegations against Narinder have not been proven in court.
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