Baldeo Taneja, Raminder Kaur killed Taneja’s ex-wife Preeta Gabba.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: An Indian American couple, Baldeo Taneja and his wife Raminder Kaur, both in their sixties, were convicted of first-degree murder of Taneja’s ex-wife Preeta Paul Gabba, who was shot dead in October of last year in Germantown, Maryland.
During the seven-day trial, prosecutors asserted that Kaur used a snub-nose revolver to fire three rounds from close range into Gabba, who was 49 years old when she died, reported The Washington Post. Prosecutors also showed that Kaur’s husband, Taneja, who has a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Ohio State University was with her that weekend.
Jurors in Montgomery County deliberated for seven hours Thursday before announcing their verdict. Taneja, dressed in a coat and tie, showed no emotion. Kaur, wearing a large pink shirt that made her look even smaller than her 5-foot-2 frame, subtly shook her head but also displayed little emotion. Jurors also found the couple guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and handgun charges. They face the possibility of life sentences in prison, the Post reported.
“Justice was served. They got what they deserved,” said Lim Gabba, 23, son of the victim, who was living with her when she was shot.
According to the details of the case, Gabba was crossing a street at around 7:45 a.m. when she was shot. She collapsed on the roadway and was rushed to the hospital soon after, where she succumbed to her injuries.
Taneja and Gabba married in Pune in 2002 and separated in 2009, with their divorce being finalized in 2011. During their marriage, which was Gabba’s second, Taneja was reportedly often abusive towards Gabba. When Gabba immigrated to the US in 2008, one year after Taneja did for a job in Boston, he asked her to stay in a hotel rather than live with him.
After their divorce, Taneja — an employee at Biostatistics & Clinical Data Management in Rockville, MD at the time — moved to Tennessee, where he began working as a statistician at a major company in Nashville.
Despite being divorced, however, Taneja allegedly harassed Gabba with late-night phone calls, even going so far as to smash windows, break into her house, and physically assault her. Gabba was reportedly terrified of Taneja, who accused her of being unfaithful during their marriage. He later moved to Tennessee, where he met Kaur and married her.
In the months preceding her murder, Taneja ceased making his alimony payments of around $2,200 a month, and Gabba filed a contempt of court order against him. Gabba worked at a clerical company in Rockville, MD, earning around $10 an hour. That’s when Taneja conspired with Kaur to murder Gabba.
The duo purchased two handguns in Nashville on September 28th, and Taneja even took firing lessons.
According to the Post report, a key piece of evidence in the trial was the murder weapon. It was found hidden in Taneja’s car — with Taneja behind the wheel and Kaur in the passenger seat — about 30 hours after the murder when law enforcement caught up with the two in Nashville, where they lived. The gun was matched to bullets from Gabba’s body.
In Nashville, Taneja worked at a pharmaceutical company after a career that included stints as a college professor and an employee of the Food and Drug Administration.
Their plan was deliberate and left behind clues — so many clues, in fact, that Taneja’s attorney, Andy Jezic, argued to jurors that someone as smart as Taneja would not have made such moves, said the Post.
Apart from taking gun shooting and safety class, he took notes throughout, according to a teacher who testified, and wrote a phrase about semiautomatic handguns and how they discharge shell casings onto the ground. “Evidence (brass) on the ground,” Taneja wrote, according to his notes, which were found by police and given to jurors.
After scouting the victim’s neighborhood in September, on October 11, according to data later taken from a GPS device in the couple’s car, Taneja and Kaur drove to Montgomery, checking into a Red Roof Inn in the Gaithersburg/Rockville area. They spent time in Maryland the next morning, and were back on the road, headed for Tennessee by 12:12 p.m.
Just before the two left town, they checked into an Amway conference in the District, something that on its face wasn’t unusual because they also were involved with the company. But the couple stayed so briefly at the conference that prosecutors were able to depict the stop as a cover story to explain what they had been doing in the area, said the Post.
But authorities quickly identified Taneja as a person of interest. When they caught up with Taneja and Kaur in their car near their home and pulled them over, inside, they found the murder weapon, the second revolver, a wig, hair dye and about $3,000 in cash.
Police also found notes Kaur had written to herself. One of those notes, presented to jurors by prosecutors as something she wrote on the way home after the murder, stated: “You calm down. We are now in TN near my home.”
1 Comment
Hi Lim.. > would just like to send my Prayers to You.. I have 3 son’s and I understand how you feel not having ANYONE HERE YOU CAN CALL YOUR FAMILY! Well here’s my phone number. My name is
Tonya Bradshaw
513-885-8535
I live in Cincinnati , Ohio
I know it’s a little far but you can call me even if you just need someone to talk to ..
Be safe and keep Your head up. GOD is looking over you.