Baljinder Bahia and Edward Baranec have pleaded not guilty at BC Supreme Court in New Westminster in the murder of Bahia’s wife Amanpreet Bahia .
NEW WESTMINSTER – The trial of an Indo-Canadian man and his accomplice, both accused of murdering his wife and a mother of three in Surrey back in 2007, has finally begun.
Baljinder Bahia and Edward Baranec have pleaded not guilty at BC Supreme Court in New Westminster in the murder of Bahia’s wife Amanpreet Bahia .
Baljinder Bahia and Baranec sat in an almost empty courtroom one morning earlier this week as Crown Counsel outlined the case against them.
Crown told the jury murdered woman’s husband considered suspect early on. Lawyer says other man Baranec confessed to undercover officers.
Crown claims Baranec says was hired by realtor Tanpreet Athwal to kill Amanpreet. Claims she told him Amanpreet’s husband Baljinder Bahia was involved.
The Crown is confident it will prove the murder of 33-year-old Amanpreet Bahia was planned by her spouse, Baranec and a Surrey realtor Tanpreet Athwal, who is being tried separately.
Both men confessed to undercover officers and say Baranec told police on-tape that he stabbed the victim, slit her throat before he was startled by two of her daughters, leaving them with her body for hours. She was found in a pool of blood in the home’s kitchen.
Both men are being tried for first-degree murder. The other accused Tanpreet Athwal is believed to be Baljinder Bahia’s mistress.
Crown says it has audio confession of Bahia saying he called his wife to tell her somebody was coming to fix the stove and to let him in.
