The estranged husband of a young woman from India who was stabbed to death in front of her colleagues at a Surrey, B.C. newspaper yesterday has been charged with first-degree murder.
Manmeet Singh appeared at Surrey provincial court Friday wearing a white hooded jumpsuit to face one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault in the brutal assault that left his 24-year-old wife Ravinder Kaur Bhangu dead.
A male coworker also suffered cuts and scrapes while trying to intervene in the attack. He was released from hospital Thursday after being treated with stitches.
Bhangu was working at the Sach Di Awaaz newspaper on 128th Street in Newton when a man entered the office and began stabbing her repeatedly.
A suspect was arrested at the scene. Though he was uncooperative and refused to provide his name to police, he was later identified as the victim's husband.
Friends say Bhangu had left him and was living with her aunt for the last few months.
Bhangu volunteered her time teaching children at a traditional dance school. Coworkers said the 24-year-old had moved to Canada from India about two years ago, around the time she and her husband were married.
She worked as an administrative assistant at Sach Di Awaaz, a free weekly bilingual English and Punjabi newspaper.
Publisher Mickey Gill said he could not speak about Bhangu's death at the request of RCMP, but issued a statement to ctvbc.ca Friday saying that the "events were extremely shocking, unimaginable and haunting for everyone involved."
The front page of Friday's edition was all black with a message addressing the tragedy.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with our deceased colleague and the family of our colleague," it read.
Singh is next scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 5.
Anyone with information on the murder is asked to call the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team at 1-877-551-4448.
