3 Indian Men In Canada Charged Over Elderly Couple's 2022 Murder

The trial began on Monday for three Indian-origin men accused of killing an elderly couple in Canada's British Columbia in 2022, Canadian media reports said. The couple - Arnold and Joanne De Jong - were found dead in their house on May 9, 2022. The accused men were identified as Gurkaran Singh, Abhijeet Singh, and Khushveer Singh Toor. On Monday, a court in British Columbia's Abbotsford heard that the accused had previously done work for Arnold and Joanne De Jong through a cleaning company.

The court heard that Arnold and Joanne were unreachable by phone the morning after a family gathering in their house on May 8, 2022, prompting one of their sons-in-law to check on them. The prosecution alleged that Gurkaran, Abhijeet, and Khushveer were motivated by debt, financial pressure, and greed, and hence they carried out the murder.

A report by CBC News said that all three men pleaded not guilty to two counts each of first-degree murder.

Accused Did Work For Couple

During Monday's hearing, Crown prosecutor Dorothy Tsui said the evidence provided would show that Gurkaran, Abhijeet, and Khushveer were connected to the De Jongs through Abhijeet's cleaning company, which had done work on the couple's house in July 2021 and April 2022. Tsui said that Gurkaran arrived in Canada on a student visa on April 16, 2022.

She added that shortly after the killings, Gurkaran and Khushveer both deposited cheques of $3,601 (around 5,000 Canadian dollars) into their bank accounts. The prosecutor further said the cheques were purportedly signed by Joanne. The memo lines of the cheques mentioned that the payments were done for the cleanup of the house.

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"While processing the scene, a forensic identification officer heard a voicemail being left on the De Jongs' landline phone, indicating that there were suspicious transactions on a credit card," Tsui told the courtroom.

She said that the police followed up on the lead and got the banking and phone records in an attempt to identify the potential suspects.

How Was The Couple Killed?

The CBC News report said that Arnold and Joanne were found dead in separate bedrooms of their house, their hands and feet bound by rope.

An Abbotsford police official who was present at the crime scene said on Monday that he found Arnold on a bed, underneath a comforter, with duct tape around his head.

The official said the duct tape was covering Arnold's nose and mouth, which would have stopped him from being able to breathe.

Another police official at the crime scene said that Joanne was found on her back in a bed, with blood around her head and neck.

Crown prosecutor Dorothy Tsui told the court that a pathologist will testify that Arnold died by asphyxiation while Joanne died by a sharp and blunt force trauma.