Slain woman was unhappy, family says

February 12th, 2007 by admin

Slain Surrey mom Amanpreet Kaur Bahia was unhappy with the controlling atmosphere in the home she shared with her husband and his parents, her three siblings told The Province yesterday.

They said she had practically no social life, was told not to wear makeup or jewelry, was rarely allowed to speak to her overseas relatives by phone, and had been unhappy since her marriage in India in 1995.

The picture they painted is in sharp contrast to statements made by her husband’s family that there were no issues in the home prior to her death on Feb. 7.

The slain woman’s brother, Jugraj Kahlon, a criminal lawyer in Punjab, his sisters Manjinder Gill and Sukhinderjit Kaur spoke to The Province one day after Bahia’s funeral in Delta at which mourners screamed for justice.

All three said their sister told them her in-laws and her husband would not be happy if she wore makeup or jewelry or did not cover her head as a sign of modesty.

Kahlon said it took an extreme effort to get permission from the Bahia family for his sister to go to India for his 2003 wedding.

“She was afraid to have pictures taken,” Kahlon said. “She said, ‘Do not take a picture of me without my head covered, and don’t take a picture of me when I am dancing.’

“That is because her in-laws did not like her to dance or not cover her head.”

Said Kaur, who lives in England: “She was afraid to dress. She was afraid to talk. At my brother’s wedding [in India], she did not want to be photographed [dressed nicely] because they would shout at her.

“The mother-in-law phoned me in England and said, ‘Don’t call here because you are misleading my daughter-in-law.’ ”

During the interview, Gill fainted when she was asked to describe the scene at her home in Punjab when she heard her sister had been slain.

Tensions between the murdered woman’s family and the Bahia family boiled over at a Surrey Sikh temple after the funeral.

Led by Kahlon, relatives and friends stormed out when a temple official praised the Bahia family without mentioning the murdered woman.

“I went to the microphone and I said I was here for the last rites of my sister and not here to listen to politics,” said Kahlon.

Amanpreet’s relatives then went to another temple, where they held their own religious ceremonies.

Amanpreet’s mother-in-law, Karam Kaur Bahia, yesterday denied her family tried to control Amanpreet.

“These are all falsehoods,” she said. “People just talk. Our family has been ruined by her death. If people have any proof, then they should go to the police. But these are all lies.”

Police said their investigation is “very active.”

Source: The Province Newspaper

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