This Article is From Feb 07, 2011

Indian-origin man guilty of murdering pregnant wife

Toronto: A Canadian court has found an Indian-origin man guilty of murdering his pregnant wife in 2006.

Mukhtiar Panghali, who was charged a few months after his school teacher wife Manjit Panghali's charred corpse was found near a waterway at Delta, British Columbia in 2006, will be sentenced on March 17.

Justice Heather Holmes convicted Mukhtiar Panghali of second-degree murder and interfering with bodily remains, the Globe and Mail reported. 31-year-old Manjit was strangled and likely died before her body was burned, it said.

The prosecution also presented evidence that Mukhtiar purchased a lighter and a newspaper from a gas station hours after his wife was last seen. The judge said she studied the images carefully and had "no doubt" the man pictured was Mukhtiar.

The couple also had a daughter who was in preschool when her mother died.

"We were just relieved that this part of it is finally over and we can move on with our lives and we can start the healing process," said Jasmine Bhambra, Manjit's sister.

Bhambra, who now takes care of the couple's daughter, called Mukhtiar a "sick and twisted and evil monster."
.