A six month old boy whose mother was stabbed to death near him is in the middle of a tug of war. Brahamveer is now in temporary custody of his maternal grandparents, Mr and Mrs Dilbag Singh, who came to Canada after their daughter, Navreet Waraich, was stabbed to death in her basement suite in Surrey. Her husband, Jatinder, has been charged with second degree murder. “Out daughter has been taken away from us. This little boy’s mother has been taken away from him. All I want is for us to take care of and bring up this boy the same way we brought up our daughter,” Dilbag Singh told The Asian Star in an interview. He said he does not care whether they are allowed to live in Canada or in Punjab as long as they have the right to take care of Brahamveer. “I see my daughter in him,” Dilbag said.
An emotional Dilbag Singh said that in hindsight perhaps he should not have married his daughter to someone in Canada. But he said distant relatives had proposed the marriage to him in Amritsar, Punjab. He asked his convent-educated daughter and she agreed to the proposal.
“My daughter was very pretty, tall and slim. She was well versed in our culture and traditions and we had brought her up to respect her elders,” he said. Everything was okay until Navreet arrived in Canada to live with Jatinder and his extended family.
Dilbag Singh said shortly afterwards, Navreet started complaining that her husband was abusive and violent. “He did not treat her as a wife. To him, she was just a money-making machine and someone to do all the house work for him,” he said. Dilbag Singh claimed that his daughter did most of the house work in the extended family as well working outside and bringing the pay cheque to her husband. “She was in a terrible situation but my daughter did not want to leave her husband or put him in any kind of trouble by calling police or seeking help of agencies,” he said.
Two or three times, he says, she was kicked out of the family house by her husband but each time friends and relatives mediated and the two were reunited. “When she gave birth to her son, she felt that things might change now but it did not,” he said.
Finally, the couple moved to a basement suite with their son. “She hoped things would improve but they did not,” he said. Navreet called her parents many times to cry on the phone and when husband stopped her from calling Punjab, her parents regularly phoned to keep in touch, her father.
“Unfortunately, she was brutally killed despite our best efforts,” he said. “The only thing left of our daughter is her grandson, Brahamveer and we desperately want to keep him for her sake,” he said. Dilbag Singh said his daughter’s soul will not be at peace if her son is not with her parents, he said. Brahamveer’s father’s relatives are also claiming custody of the child and a judge has yet to determine the permanent custody. “I don’t want my grandson to end up the same way my daughter did,” Dilbag Singh said. He said he would advice all parents in Punjab who are marrying their daughters to grooms overseas, specially in Canada, to properly check out their grooms, their family background and the background and details of the grooms before doing anything.
“Check them out thoroughly,” he said. “I also urge all daughters who are married here to immediately contact police or service agencies at the first sign of abuse or trouble. Please do not leave your parents to suffer after you have been killed. Stop this violence now,” he said.Source: The Asian Star (www.theasianstar.com)
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