Surrey homicide victim was student Prabhleen Kaur Matharu from Punjab: Tribune newspaper

One Voice Canada will be holding a candlelight vigil in memory of Prabhleen Kaur Matharu on Saturday, November 30 at 5 p.m. at Holland Park, Surrey.

THE Integrated Homicide Investigation Team on Monday said that the victim of last Thursday’s homicide in Surrey was a 21-year-old female from India and the second dead person was an 18-year-old male resident of the Lower Mainland. “We are not looking for further suspects,” IHIT added.

The VOICE had pointed out last week that meant this was apparently a homicide-suicide. So it seems that the male killed the female before ending his own life.

Shortly before 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 21, frontline officers with Surrey RCMP attended a residence in the 14000-block of 102A Avenue, where they located two dead persons, and subsequently called in the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT).

The Tribune newspaper of Punjab, India, reported on Sunday that the female victim was Prabhleen Kaur Mathuru, a native of Chitti village near Lambra in Jalandhar district of Punjab. She had been in Canada since 2016 on a study visa and was to return in January next year.

Prabhleen Kaur Mathuru Photo: Facebook

(According to her Facebook, she had been studying at Langara School of Management since May 21, 2018, and working as a concierge at Mc2 Living – Marine X Cambie.)

Prabhleen Kaur Mathuru Photo: Facebook

“The girl’s family received intimation of her death from the Canada police on Sunday morning,” the Tribune reported.

The victim, Prabhleen Kaur Matharu, a native of Chitti village near Lambra in Jalandhar, had gone to Canada for studies in 2016 and was supposed to return in January next year.

The victim’s father, Gurdial Singh Matharu, who is a photojournalist based in Jalandhar, told the newspaper, “I received a call from the Canada police this morning saying that my daughter had been murdered. They didn’t tell me anything else. My daughter had completed her studies and she was working at a cosmetic warehouse. She was on a full-time job. Her mother visited her there and returned just three months ago. We are in shock right now.”

“While the victim had been putting up at a rented accommodation, her father said she took a separate room when her mother came. However, many locals, Indians and Chinese were putting up in the same complex,” the Tribune reported.

Matharu said that Canadian police told him that they it would take them at least a week to verify “the real cause of her murder.”

Matharu told the Hindustan Times newspaper that when Prabhleen got a full-time job this year, she started sending money home to repay the loan they had taken for her education. “I spent Rs 35 lakh [Rs 3.5 million] in three years, including the Rs 15 lakh [Rs 1.5 million] needed to send her to Canada. I borrowed the money from relatives. We still we have to repay about Rs 15 lakh,” he said.

Her mother, Manjit Kaur, had visited her twice in two years and returned in August after spending three months with her, the newspaper reported.

Her father said: “She was happy and excited for she was to come home in January. The last time she came visiting was in January 2017. I would never have allowed her to go had I known she would never come back.”

The Matharus have a 10-year-old son, Prabhjeet Singh, who studies in a Jalandhar school.

The family had yet to decide whether to travel to Canada.

The victim is survived by her parents and a younger brother.

ON Thursday, the Hindustan Times reported that the slain student’s father had applied for Canadian visa on Wednesday. He said, “I have lots of information to share with investigators, but will not like to divulge anything now.”

The newspaper said that Jalandhar MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary on Wednesday discussed the case with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi.

“He requested the minister to take up the matter with the Canadian government and also sought financial assistance to Prabhleen’s parents to visit Canada and bring the body of their daughter to India,” the newspaper reported.

“The minister assured that the issue would be taken up at the highest level of the Canadian government and exemplary punishment would be sought for the culprits,” he said in a statement.