The Law Courts building, which is home to the B.C. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, is seen in Vancouver, on Nov. 23, 2023. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck
Jagpreet Singh has been convicted of second-degree murder for fatally stabbing his wife at her Abbotsford, B.C., home six days after he arrived in Canada from India.
The Supreme Court of British Columbia arrived at the conviction after disproving the defence’s claim that Singh had acted out of self-defence, according to the court’s decision.
The trial had focused on Singh’s intent, as “there is no dispute that Mr. Singh caused the death of his wife,” the document said. The defence sought the lesser charge of manslaughter, saying that the murder was committed in the heat of passion and caused by sudden provocation.
The court heard evidence that Singh, who was 51 at the time, stabbed his 41-year-old wife, Balwinder Kaur, through her heart and her jugular vein, at her basement suite on March 15, 2024.
However, the court found that “Mr. Singh’s evidence is incapable of raising any reasonable doubt about murderous intent, about Ms. Kaur provoking Mr. Singh in the way he described, or about such provocation causing him to suddenly experience an overwhelming loss of control that is legally excusable.”
Justice Andrea Ormiston said the defence’s evidence of Singh disarming Kaur on the first instance of her producing a knife and holding her back on the second instance was consistent with his claim that he wanted to “make sure nobody got hurt.” However, that evidence was also “consistent with him being in a rational state of mind and not one overthrown by angry passion.”
The judge said that Singh’s testimony also contained several significant inconsistencies that undermined his credibility. For example, his account of what triggered his argument with Kaur that led to her death changed from his initial police statement to his trial testimony. In the original statement, he said the dispute was about his wife telling him to find work, while during the trial he said it was caused by her rejecting his sexual advances and her refusal to stay home from work.
His description of the altercation also differed between the original statement and later testimony, with him originally omitting from the police statement that Kaur had threatened him with a knife. When confronted about the omission, Singh said he had “lied a little” to police and said he had only remembered the knife incident later, which the judge found implausible.
The judge also found Singh gave contradictory evidence about the couple’s immigration plans and his relationship with Kaur, describing their move to Canada as a shared family plan during the trial, despite previously telling police he intended to return to India and that his wife refused to go with him.
Singh further omitted from his trial testimony that he had stopped his wife from calling out to neighbours for help, despite telling police he had dragged her away from a doorway leading to a neighbouring suite after she cried out. During cross-examination, Singh said that his original statements to police were true.
A date for sentencing has not yet been set.
