The courtroom welled up with emotion during judgement.
A 40-year-old Indo Canadian and his lover have been sentenced to a life term without the option of parole for killing his bedridden wife in 2014. The convict Bhupinderpal Gill, and Gurpreet Ronald, 37, who were found guilty of first-degree murder, will have to serve 25 years in jail.
Jagtar Gill, 43, was found dead in her home on January 29, 2014, one day after she had received a hernia operation. Her husband and 15-year-old daughter found her, on the day of her 17th wedding anniversary.
According to the prosecution, Bhupinderpal and Gurpreet Ronald developed a relationship while they were working as drivers of OC Transpo in Ottawa and were planning to start a life together. Gurpreet Ronald bludgeoned Jagatar to death at the residence in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven when Bhupinderpal was out on the morning of January 29.
Ronald was a neighbor of the Gills and lived just a stone’s throw away from their residence. A blood-stained metal bar was found in the woods near the Gill house. The police arrested Roland on April 7, 2014, and took Bhupinderpal into custody a week later.
Though both were tried together, they were represented by separate lawyers. The trial lasted for two months and the jury of five women and seven men took six days of deliberation before pronouncing the judgment.
The courtroom welled up with emotion as the jury pronounced the judgment. The father, mother and other relatives of Jagtar Gill welcomed the verdict with applauses. The convicts, who didn’t wish to face the court stood separately.
Jagtar Gill’s niece Ramandap Chahal, 23, read an impact statement drafted by Jagatar’s parents Ajit Singh, 73, and Jagir Kaur, 71.
“The best way we can describe our grief to the fortunate people who have never had to experience the murder of a loved one is to imagine the worst emotional pain that you’ve ever experienced in your life, and then multiply it by a thousand,” she said.
“There is no moving on. There’s nothing, and we mean absolutely nothing, that makes you feel better. They say time heals all wounds but we have to disagree. The only thing time has done for our family is to move the tragic loss of Jagtar further away. It hasn’t made it better,” she said.
The lawyers of the convicts said that their clients were shocked and emotional in the verdict and would appeal against it.
The ashes of Jagatar will be spread in India according to her will.