Manjit Panghali Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More

Bio/Wiki
Nickname	Manj [1]Vancouver Sun
Profession	Teacher
Known for	Being murdered by her husband, Mukhtiar Panghali, in October 2006
Physical Stats & More
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Personal Life
Date of Birth	4 July 1975 (Friday)
Date of Death	18 October 2006
Place of Death	Deltaport causeway in South Delta, Canada
Age (at the time of death)	31 Years
Death Cause	Murder [2]Hindustan Times
Zodiac sign	Cancer
Nationality	Canadian
Relationships & More
Marital Status (at the time of death)	Married
Family
Husband	Mukhtiar Panghali
Children	Daughter- Maya
Parents	Father- Resham Basra Mother- Surinder Basra
Siblings	Sister- Jasmine Bhambra (real estate professional at RE/MAX Little, Oak Realty) Brother-in-law- Tarminderpal (owner at ActiveKinetics) Brother- Tur Basra

Some Lesser Known Facts About Manjit Panghali

• Manjit Panghali was an Indian Canadian woman who was murdered by her husband, Mukhtiar Panghali, on 18 October 2006, and her burnt body was recovered at the Deltaport causeway in South Delta in British Columbia, Canada. Manjit Panghali was four months pregnant at the time of her murder and was the mother of a three-year-old daughter, Maya.
  

  Manjit Panghali with her three years old daughter, Maya

• Manjit was working as an elementary teacher at North Ridge Elementary School in 2006. Manjit Panghali went missing on 18 October 2006 after attending a prenatal yoga class. Her husband, Mukhtiar Panghali, reported the missing complaint of Manjit Panghali after 26 hours after she was last seen.

• During the media trials, Mukhtiar Panghali was seen worried about his wife’s disappearance, and he appeared at several news conferences, sobbing and appealing for Manjit Panghali’s safe return.

• Five days later, Manjit Panghali’s burnt body was found alongside the Deltaport causeway in South Delta in British Columbia, Canada.

• On 12 March 2007, Mukhtiar Panghali was arrested by the police as the prime suspect. The night when Manjit went missing, Mukhtiar was found buying a lighter and a newspaper in surveillance footage during the police investigation. Later, Manjit Panghali’s car was found locked with the alarm armed.

• During the court trials, the evidence showed that when Manjit Panghali reached home after attending a prenatal yoga class, Mukhtiar Panghali strangled her to death, and then he burned her body and disposed of it at the Deltaport causeway in South Delta.

• After the arrest of Mukhtiar Panghali, his parents and Manjit’s family fought for the custody of the couple’s only child, Maya. Later, the custody of Maya was provided to Manjit’s sister Jasmine Bhambra. In a conversation with a media house, Jasmine stated that during the court trials, it was horrific to see Mukhtiar’s face all the time. She said,
  

  The custody battle was horrific and very traumatic, having to relive the trauma. It was horrific to see his face all the time.  It was the most difficult time of my life.”

  

  Jasmine Bhambra (Manjit’s sister) is on the left and Maya is second from the right

• At B.C. Supreme Court, Mukhtiar Panghali stated that he was not guilty. In November 2010, Mukhtiar Panghali was charged with second-degree murder allegations and interfering with human remains, and in February 2011, he was convicted on both charges. Sukhvinder Panghali, the brother of Mukhtiar Panghali, was convicted of accessory to murder charges by the B.C. Supreme Court. Mukhtiar was awarded life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 15 years. Later, Mukhtiar Panghali admitted that he murdered his wife because he had negative feelings toward his wife. ^[3]Vancouver City News

• The Crown prosecutor Dennis Murray, soon after the verdict of Manjit’s murder case, narrated the killing incident as:
  

  The teacher killed his wife after she’d returned home from a prenatal yoga class, staged the discovery of her car in Whalley, burned her body on a remote beach along DeltaPort causeway in South Delta, and then delayed for as long as he could to lodge a missing persons complaint with the Surrey RCMP.”

  

  Mukhtiar Panghali during a court trial

• In December 2010, Manjit Panghali’s diary and letters were disclosed by the Canadian police publicly, and these letters were scrutinized by various Canadian media houses. The entries in the diary revealed that Manjit hated her life and was going through depression, and she was trying to keep her marriage from falling apart. One of her family members elucidated in a media conversation that Manjit Panghali was struggling with depression after the birth of her first child. In one of the entries in her diary, Manjit wrote,
  

  I am writing today because I thought that I would never let myself get to this point. I am clinically depressed and on medication. I am so scared. My husband does not give me the support I need.”

  Manjit penned that the depression made her helpless. She wrote,

  I feel shattered, destroyed, crumbled. I want to drink, do drugs – do something that will lift me up.”

  In her diary, she narrated the status of her marriage,

  We need to do some work on our marriage. We need to plan it in order that our relationship doesn’t disintegrate. We need to do some work on this relationship. I need to stay connected to him. Make him love me again.”

  She further mentioned that Mukhtiar had a drinking problem. She wrote,

  I feel helpless. I hate life. It’s so hard to live in two cultures. He makes me feel so powerless, so hopeless, so scared. I once had no doubts about our lives together, my role in your life and our future, but now I am very scared about what the future holds for us.”

  Manjit wrote several letters to Mukhtiar, and in one of the letters to him, she wrote the issues of their married life. She penned,

  We have struggled with many issues – sex, drugs, alcohol, colleagues, family, our ability to communicate, be affectionate, love again. I don’t know if you have enjoyed the relationship we have had.”

  Manjit further expressed her hesitation to have another child in her diary. She wrote,

  I definitely don’t want to bring another child in this chaos. The chaos can [simply] be you drink and I don’t know how to cope. You let us down by not being around. You get upset and mean.”

  Two months before her murder, on 18 August 2006, Manjit Panghali wrote about her birthday celebration with Mukhtiar and her second pregnancy test. She wrote,

  MP though for sure I was pregnant and gave me a lovely card on our anniversary. He was very excited and was [sic] treating me like a princess. I could not stop crying because I was so thrilled.”

• In March 2011, according to B.C. Supreme Court Crown lawyer, Dennis Murray, the motive for the crime remained unknown. ^[4]The Star

• In October 2021, Mukhtiar Panghali was granted unescorted leaves from prison by the B.C. Supreme Court so that he could spend time with his family members and work towards reintegrating into society. According to the court order, he was not allowed to meet Manjit’s family including his and Manjit’s daughter, Maya.

• In March 2022, a web series titled ‘Til Death Do Us Part: The Murder Of Manjit Basra’ based on the life and death of Manjit Panghali was announced to be streamed on Discovery Plus.
  

  The poster of the web series based on the life and death of Manjit Panghali