Three people accused of murdering a Surrey mother of three in 2007 are scheduled to be tried separately next year – nine years after the killing.
Amanpreet Kaur Bahia’s husband, Baljinder Singh Bahia, as well a Surrey woman named Tanpreet Kaur Athwal and Burnaby’s Eduard Viktorovitch Baranec, are charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death.
Amanpreet was 33 when she was found dead in a pool of blood in her Newton home. Police called the fatal attack “brutal” and “violent.”
It was late morning Feb. 7, 2007 when some family members returned from an outing to find Amanpreet in the downstairs suite of the two-storey green house near 125 Street and 58 Avenue.
The youngest two of her three young daughters were home at the time, left alone for three hours with their mother’s lifeless body.
Police said Amanpreet’s husband and other family members were interviewed by investigators at the time and were “fully cooperative.”
Arrests did not come quickly.
It wasn’t until four years later – in February 2011 – that police announced Bahia, Baranec and Athwal had been charged in the murder.
Police revealed the husband had been a “person of interest” early on and that the investigation had been advanced in late 2010 by information provided by the Saskatchewan RCMP.
The trio was ordered to stand trial after a preliminary hearing of the evidence in Surrey Provincial Court in May 2012.
The trial was then scheduled to begin in January 2014, but was delayed.
Now, court records indicate there will be two separate juried trials for the accused murderers.
While Bahia and Baranec are scheduled to go to trial beginning Feb. 1, Athwal’s trial is slated to start May 2.
It’s believed both will trials will take place in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
