THE B.C. Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal by Ninderjit Singh, who had pleaded guilty to the January 26, 1999 second-degree murder of Poonam Randhawa, 18, to reduce his period of parole ineligibility of 16 years.
The three-judge panel ruled that the appeal was without merit and that “no error in principle has been demonstrated in the careful reasons of the sentencing judge.” The “sentence is wholly fit,” Chief Justice Robert Bauman said in the ruling that was agreed to by Justice Peter Lowry and Justice Richard Goepel.
In the reasons for judgment, Bauman noted that Ninderjit Singh had been in a relationship with Randhwa. He wrote: “It was a most callous murder committed by a man who, the sentencing judge concluded, was unable to control his jealous and manipulative character and who demonstrated a lack of respect for the law and the rights of others, a man who fled the murder scene and evaded detection in California for some 12½ years before being captured and returned to Canada.”
Singh pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, and his period of parole ineligibility was set at 16 years. Singh then appealed his conviction, seeking to withdraw his guilty plea. But the Court of Appeal rejected the appeal. He then appealed his sentence, seeking a reduction in his period of parole ineligibility. That appeal, too, has now been rejected.
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