Mall meeting not planned, trial told

Animosity did not spark fatal attack, friend testifies Teenager beaten to death in confrontation

A man who says he saw his best friend ambushed and killed at Albion Mall by more than 20 men armed with pipes, two- byfours and a hammer denies the confrontation was sparked by animosity between two groups.

Mutti Rehman, 22, insisted yesterday in Superior Court that it was just a coincidence that he and two friends arrived at the mall parking lot minutes before their pal Raheel Malik drove up.

“ I am going to suggest that you were there as backup for Raheel,” said lawyer Peter DeJulio, who is defending Amandeep Banwait on a murder charge.

“ That’s not true,” Rehman replied.

DeJulio also suggested that Banwait, who is from Mississauga, and his friends were there “ to speak to the Rexdale group, and you were Rexdale group.”

“ I don’t understand what that’s supposed to mean,” Rehman said.

Banwait, 22, Harjit Matharu, 21, and Amar Sandhu, 22, have pleaded not guilty to first- degree murder in the 19- year- old part- time security guard’s beating death on June 6, 2003.

“ Raheel never called you and asked you to come to the mall and help him with a group from Mississauga?” asked Patrick Metzler, Matharu’s lawyer. Rehman said he hadn’t. Rehman also denied, when asked by Metzler, about knowing of a separate standoff between a Mississauga group and Rexdale group of South Asian men at Canada’s Wonderland. Hammad Khan, 20, who was at the mall with Rehman that night, said as soon as Malik arrived Banwait and Matharu started waving their arms to signal 20 to 30 young men to attack. “ Everybody had a weapon,” he told Crown prosecutor Sean Horgan. The men surrounded and beat Malik, who fell to the pavement, Khan testified. Banwait stood over the victim, hitting him two or three times with a hammer, he said. Rehman pushed Banwait away from their friend, then the man used his hammer to smash Malik’s car windows, Khan said. Khan said he tried to help his friend, but he “ was a mess.

“His head was bleeding. He had cuts on his face. Right there his wounds opened up in front of me,” Khan said. “ Blood was rushing through and he was shaking.” The trial continues today.