Maninder Gill with Queen’s Medal
Harjit Atwal
Police investigate after the shooting on August 28, 2010.
BY RATTAN MALL
RADIO India boss Maninder Gill’s trial in which Surrey businessman Harjit Atwal was shot in the leg at Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara on August 28, 2010, is scheduled from March 24 to April 11, 2014, at the B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, and witnesses began receiving notices to appear last week.
Both Gill and Atwal were guests at a wedding at the Surrey gurdwara. An argument in the parking lot apparently sparked off the shooting.
RCMP said at the time: “It was quickly determined that the suspect in this matter had fled the scene. … After interviewing witnesses at the scene, a suspect was identified in this matter. An intensive investigation was undertaken in the hours following the incident.”
Police searched for Gill at his radio station and at his house, where some residents were handcuffed and later released.
Meanwhile, investigators forwarded a request to Crown Counsel for charges and an arrest warrant was issued for Gill’s arrest.
Gill turned himself in two days later and was released on a $200,000 bail on September 9, 2010.
Gill now faces charges of pointing a firearm, possessing weapon for dangerous purpose, and discharge a firearm with intent to wound / disfigure in connection with the incident.
The notice states: “Our office will be in contact with you closer to the trial date to confirm when you will be required to testify and to arrange a pre-trial interview.”
The trial is bound to be a sensational one in the South Asian community. Just last February there was a flood of bad publicity when Gill was awarded the prestigious Queen’s Medal by NDP MP Jinny Sims. Gill told Surrey Now newspaper that Surrey MPs Jasbir Sandhu (NDP) and Nina Grewal (Conservative) also offered to nominate him for the medal.
