Punjabi woman killed in Canada, husband held

Surrey, July 29
In a suspected case of honour killing, an Indian-origin woman working with a newspaper was butchered with a meat cleaver allegedly by her husband on the outskirts of Vancouver. The police has identified the victim as Ravinder Kaur Bhangu, 24, who worked with the weekly ‘Sach Di Awaaz’ in Surrey, the Vancouver Sun reported.
She was killed by her husband Sunny Bhangu yesterday, journalist Sukhminder Cheema said, quoting a witness. “He came to the newspaper office and pulled out a meat cleaver..., then he stabbed her with the meat cleaver,” said Cheema. She died on the spot. Sunny (26) was arrested from the crime site. Cheema said reportedly he made no effort to flee. Cheema said Sunny Bhangu met his wife in India and brought her to Canada less than three years ago. They had “some misunderstandings and differences,” and Ravinder moved out of their home in April. Cheema described Ravinder as “pretty, nice, soft-spoken and a very calm girl.”
The couple belonged to a village near Rajpura, said sources. Ravinder had moved in with her aunt about three months ago, her friends told the Vancouver Sun. “You can say that it was honour killing," said Cheema.
"So far nobody has heard that she had a boyfriend, or anything like that. Maybe he was angry because she left him," he added. Cheema is a British Columbia-based staff reporter for Punjabi Jagran in India. He said she started working at the newspaper last November. She worked from Tuesday to Thursday at the Punjabi weekly in Newton and taught Punjabi folk dance at a local community centre on Fridays. “This has shocked the whole community,” he said.