Man should get six-year term: Crown
COURT: Bedi found guilty of being accessory after the fact in Sept. 2011 shooting of Maple Batalia
The Crown is seeking a six-year jail term for a man who was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Maple Batalia of Surrey.
In May, Gursimar Bedi, 26, was convicted for his role in the September 2011 slaying of the 19-year-old Simon Fraser University student.
Batalia was shot three times by her ex-boyfriend, Gurjinder Dhaliwal, as she left the university’s Surrey campus. Dhaliwal pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole for 21 years.
In sentencing submissions Monday, Crown counsel Wendy Stephen said the aggravating factors included that the killing involved an ambush of a young woman and that Bedi was involved in helping Dhaliwal for three days before the murder and in the days following the slaying.
She noted Bedi had rented the vehicle used in the shooting and had gone to the SFU campus in the days before the murder to watch the victim and report back to Dhaliwal.
It may well have been that the enraged Dhaliwal would have killed Batalia at some other place and time, Stephen told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Terence Schultes.
“But the fact he was able to do so at SFU at that time was directly contributed to by Mr. Bedi’s behaviour before the killing.”
Bedi was initially charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted of that charge. He was at the campus when Dhaliwal shot and stabbed Batalia and, as a result, had first-hand knowledge of the crime that had been committed when he decided to assist the killer after the murder, the prosecutor said.
In a number of texts after the murder, Bedi offered Dhaliwal an alibi and provided him with information about the police probe, Stephen said.
The prosecutor read a victim impact statement provided by Sarabjit Batalia, the victim’s mother.
“Five years ago my beautiful Maple was taken away from me in the most vicious way imaginable,” the mother wrote. “Someone as selfless and loving as her didn’t deserve the death that she was given.”
Hoven Patey, a lawyer for Bedi, told the judge his client came “unwittingly” to play a role in assisting Dhaliwal, was horrified at the slaying and deeply regretted his actions: “He didn’t intend this. He didn’t anticipate this.”
The defence lawyer said it would be more appropriate for Bedi to receive a conditional sentence of two years less a day.
In a statement to the court, Bedi apologized to the Batalia family, saying the situation was a tragedy and he could only imagine the pain they’d gone through.
“I feel bad for what has been done. I had no intention of the outcome,” he said.