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Indo-Canadian kills kin, gets life term
Rajinder Atwal has been served a life sentence for brutally murdering his 17-year-old daughter who was having an inter-racial affair.
An Indo-Canadian has been served a life sentence for brutally murdering his 17-year-old daughter who was having an inter-racial affair.
A jury in British Columbia province convicted Rajinder Atwal of killing his daughter Amandeep. The court heard that Amandeep's decision to carry on an interracial relationship led Atwal to stab his defenceless daughter four times.
The Atwal family lived in Kitimat in British Columbia. Amandeep and her boyfriend Todd MacIsaac had a secret relationship for two years. But when Amandeep intended to move away with MacIsaac, Rajinder could not accept it.
Not a trace of emotion was seen on the bespectacled face of Atwal when a jury found him guilty, reports the South Asian Observer.
A hearing to determine when he can apply for parole has been scheduled for June. Atwal's wife and son were accompanied to court by a group of supporters who comforted the two after the verdict. The group left the courthouse in a convoy of cars shortly after the verdict was read.
Although Atwal had said his daughter had stabbed herself on a car trip from the Vancouver area to northern British Columbia, the trial heard that the girl's death came as a result of a bitter quarrel between the two.
The teenager was pronounced dead at Langley Memorial Hospital, east of Vancouver, where she was brought by her father in the family car. She was curled on the floor on the passenger side, covered with a blanket, her clothes encrusted with dried blood.
In an interview published in The Vancouver Province, McIsaac said Atwal had a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. Outside the house, he acted responsibly but at home, he assaulted and swore at his daughter, he said.
In June of 2003, when the young couple met with a car accident, their cover was blown and Atwal was infuriated. He told his daughter he wished she and McIsaac had been killed in the accident, the paper said.
This incident prompted the couple to make plans to elope. They spent three days together in Prince George before Amandeep agreed to go back to Vancouver for a family vacation.
The day before she died, Amandeep had called McIsaac to say she was returning to Prince George. She said her father would be driving her, McIsaac said.
