A B.C. court has heard that a pregnant woman allegedly killed by her husband was viciously assaulted before she was strangled to death.
Manjit Panghali was four months pregnant with her second child when she disappeared in October 2006. Her badly burned corpse was discovered on a Delta beach a few days later, and her husband Mukhtiar Panghali was charged with the murder after a five-month investigation.
At Panghali's trial on Wednesday, pathologist Dr. Charles Lee testified that Manjit's attacker strangled her with his bare hands -- but not before brutally assaulting her.
Lee said that Manjit sustained a blunt force injury to her pelvic area, which caused hemorrhaging -- it may have been caused by a punch or a kick.
He said that she was set on fire after her death
Throughout the forensic evidence about the gruesome murder of his wife, Mukhtiar Panghali showed no emotion.
But women's rights advocate Raminder Dosanjh was in the courtroom, and she says she was deeply affected hear of the "torture" of Manjit Panghali.
"It is just appalling, just sitting there listening to it. It's hard to believe that any sane person would go and do this to someone," Dosanjh said.
"I was actually thinking what the family must be going through."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Julia Foy
