THE Crown on Wednesday wanted Harjot Singh Deo — who last February pleaded guilty to manslaughter with a firearm and indignity to human remains in the death of his girlfriend Bhavkiran (Kiran) Dhesi, 19, whose body was found inside a burned-out vehicle in Surrey on August 2, 2017, in Surrey – to be sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Deo, who was 19 at the time, was involved in the illegal drug trade and used to carry an illegal firearm without a licence. He installed a security system on the exterior of his Surrey family home after the stabbing of his brother.
Dhesi drove to Deo’s residence in a BMW on the night of her death and they went out to dinner in Langley. Deo took his firearm along. When they returned to Deo’s residence, they went to his bedroom. When he tried to remove the firearm from his sweatpants, the gun went off. Dhesi was shot in the head and died almost immediately.
Deo then put Dhesi’s body in the back of her vehicle and drove it to another place where he set it on fire to get rid of the evidence. Deo’s brother and another relative later drove him back to his home.
Crown counsel told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk that though the shooting was accidental, Deo had a high degree of moral blameworthiness because he regularly carried a dangerous firearm. Also, his moral blameworthiness was high for the charge of committing an indignity to a human body,
Crown counsel wanted Deo to receive six years for manslaughter with a firearm and four years for covering up the crime, to be served consecutively.
Defence counsel argued for six years for both offences.
The judge will hand down her sentence at a later date.
Meanwhile, Gurvinder Singh Deo, brother of Harjot Singh Deo, and Talwinder Singh Khun Khun, member of Deo’s extended family, were on Monday found not guilty of being accessories after the fact in Dhesi’s manslaughter.
Deo’s mother, Manjit Kaur Deo, got a conditional discharge and 12 months of probation after pleading guilty to obstruction in May 2021, and his sister, Inderdeep Kaur Deo’s charge of accessory after the fact was stayed.
