NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — A man convicted as an accessory to the murder of a student in a university parking lot in Surrey, B.C., has been sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Crown lawyers had asked for a six-year prison sentence for Gursimar Bedi, who was found guilty for helping in the slaying of Maple Batalia in September 2011.
Nineteen-year-old Batalia was shot and killed in a parking lot at a Simon Fraser University campus after a late-night study session.
The court heard Bedi rented a vehicle used on the night of the murder for his friend, Gurjinder Dhaliwal.
Batalia’s parents are distraught over the sentencing. Speaking outside the New Wesminster court house minutes after Justice Terence Schultes delivered the sentence, Harry Batalia told reporters "We lost our angel and she's not going to come back. We might have been a little happier if this judgement had been longer."
His wife, Sarbjit, insisted emotionally that it’s time for judicial reform. “I appeal to all people, you have to change the justice system."
Bedi was originally charged with manslaughter but found guilty of the lesser charge of accessory after the fact for his role in the aspiring actress and model's death.
Last year, a B.C. Supreme Court judge sentenced Batalia's ex-boyfriend, Gurjinder "Gary" Dhailawl to life in prison without parole for 21 years after he admitted to killing Batalia in the parking lot of the Surrey SFU campus after seeing her study with a male classmate in September 2011.
Batalia was shot three times in the back and slashed in the head with a knife after Dhaliwal became enraged.
She was an aspiring actress and model studying health sciences.
