Slaying scenario outlined

Murder trial begins for 3 in teen’s beating at Albion Mall Friend was hit ‘with hammer on his jaw,’ man testifies

Mutti Rehman says he tried to call his friend to warn him he was about to be attacked by a large group of men at Albion Mall, but his cellphone battery died. He searched the car he was in for another phone, but soon his 19-year-old “brother” Raheel Malik was pulling into the parking lot at the Etobicoke mall where he had recently been a security guard, Rehman testified in the opening day of a firstdegree murder trial. Aman Banwait, 22, Harjit Matharu, 21, and Amar Sandhu, 22, have pleaded not guilty in Malik’s beating death on the evening of June 6, 2003.

“I saw a number of people chasing the car,” Rehman testified yesterday. Several had twobyfours and others were armed with metal rods, he told Crown prosecutor Rochelle Direnfeld.

Banwait pushed Malik’s chest, making the small, unarmed man fall back, Rehman testified. The attacker’s sister vainly screamed at him to stop, he added. Then another man hit Malik on the back of the head with a two- by- four, Rehman told the jury.

“ He flung forward toward Aman and that’s when Aman hit him with a hammer on his jaw.” Rehman said a man with a red bandanna on his head — whom he later learned was Matharu — started hitting Malik with a metal pipe. The victim fell to the ground and the group kept beating him, Rehman told Superior Court.

Banwait then used the hammer to smash the windows of Malik’s Grand Am, and the whole group fled, leaving his friend on the ground, he said.

“ He was bleeding a lot from his face, his ear, from the back of his head and top of his head,” Rehman said. “ He was unconscious and he couldn’t breathe properly.”

Malik died from his head injuries 20 days later in hospital, Direnfeld told the jury as she outlined the evidence she expects to call.

Shortly after the attack, Banwait was heard in a Mississauga coffee shop saying, “ ‘ We f--- ed him up. I think he’s dead.’ ” Direnfeld said.

Police arrested Matharu on June 7. “ I wasn’t at Albion last night,” he told Det. Brian Johnston, according to Direnfeld. But Johnston countered that he had heard that Matharu was at the mall and had hit a man with a pipe, and that he was under arrest for attempted murder, Direnfeld said.

“ ‘ But, sir, I only kicked the guy,’ ” Matharu allegedly replied. Another witness will testify that Sandhu later laughed and joked that he and friends had severely beaten someone at the mall, the prosecutor said. Blood found on Banwait’s pants matched Malik’s, as did the blood on the damaged parts of the deceased’s car, she said. The trial continues today.