New Westminster Supreme Court Justice Paul Williamson instead found Iqbal Singh Vinepal guilty of manslaughter and aggravated assault. The 56-year-old stabbed Naib Singh Toor to death and injured Razia Salaam during a dispute nearly two years ago.
SURREY – An Indo-Canadian man from Surrey was found not guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder last week in connection with a 2010 knife attack.
New Westminster Supreme Court Justice Paul Williamson instead found Iqbal Singh Vinepal guilty of manslaughter and aggravated assault. The 56-year-old stabbed Naib Singh Toor to death and injured Razia Salaam during a dispute nearly two years ago.
The victim and accused were all known to each other.
Vinepal stabbed Salaam in the chest and sliced her face and throat during the attack in his house, in the 12800-block of 99th Avenue in Whalley. Toor died of blood loss from two stab wounds. Vinepal claimed he’d acted in self-defence, but Williamson didn’t believe him.
Salaam testified Vinepal told her after the attack that he’d cut her head off and give it to her mother, and he’d cut her up, put her in the freezer and eat her. After that, she said, Vinepal suggested they get married in India.
Crown prosecutor Liane O’Grady has requested a psychiatric evaluation and risk assessment be done on Vinepal prior to his sentencing on Sept. 20.
Williamson noted that Toor’s blood alcohol content was four and a half times over the legal driving limit and that Vinepal had been in a similar state.
He found Vinepal had been too intoxicated to meet the established threshold to form intent to kill.
Vinepal, who was dressed in a red prisoner’s suite, didn’t show much emotion as the sheriff led him away.
O’Grady said it had been a “really difficult” trial. “It was a really fair decision,” she said of the verdict.
Vinepal’s next court appearance is Sept. 20, when he will be sentenced.
