Foul play suspected in disappearance: Police

Foul play suspected in disappearance: Police

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Last Updated: April 13, 2010 9:29pm

BRAMPTON — Peel Police say “foul play” is behind the strange disappearance of pregnant Poonam Litt and that family secrets within the home from which she vanished have prompted the homicide squad to take over the case, the Toronto Sun has learned.

The 27-year-old mother of a 3 1/2-half-year-old daughter went missing Feb. 5, 2009 — leaving behind her personal effects.

Now police, who until Tuesday had called it a missing person’s case, are focusing their investigation on members of her husband’s family.

“We have no doubt Poonam Litt has met with foul play and the persons residing within the Litt household know very well what happened to her,” said Insp. Norm English Tuesday evening. “We also realize that some family members are haunted by what occurred and it is only a matter of time before the exact truth is uncovered and this despicable family secret is revealed.”

The startling revelation came almost two weeks after the Cordgrass Cres. family’s patriarch, Kulwant Litt, 61, was charged with criminal harassment in an alleged stalking incident. The alleged victim was the same woman whom he had previously admitted in court to stalking; he was on probation for that offence.

He was also convicted of a 2007 sexual assault on another woman.

On April 8, Peel Police suggested there may have been more information from within the home — they being specifically curious of evidence showing someone left the home in a mini-van between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2009, five hours before Poonam is said to have gone to work.

On April 9, Kulwant’s son, Manjinder, who was in India at the time his wife disappeared, told The Sun he would talk to his father to ask if he knew more about what transpired that day. Speaking to the Sun Tuesday Manjinder, 31, said he did talk with his father and that “he said nothing.”

But Manjinder described his father as being “in his own world” and on the question of whether his dad might have more information, said: “You never know.”

The family has told police the last person to see Poonam was Manjinder’s sister, and Kulwant’s daughter, Mandeep. Kulwant has told his son he left the home at 7 a.m. on the day the woman went missing. Mandeep told me that “she gave me the baby” and went at about 9 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2009.

Poonam never did arrive at her dental office receptionist job.

Manjinder said his relationship with his father had been strained since he returned from India and Mandeep said about her father: “I am not happy because, you know, too many times he’s (been) arrested.”

“This case is difficult to understand,” said Det. Dan Richardson, who added there’s been movement in the disturbing investigation.

“Some family members are co-operating and some are outright lying, which is unfortunate, but a good sign that we are on the right track,” said Richardson. “Our investigation is progressing well, we’re very close to finding out what occurred.”

Manjinder said Poonam talked of the pregnancy during a phone call while he was in India just days before she disappeared. He said while his daughter Kirinjot “calls out for her mother every day,” he defended the people under his roof by saying this is not situation involving cultural “honour” or bride burning as some in the community have been suggesting on blogs which are being commented on from Brampton to the Punjab in India.

“My family is not like that,” he insisted, adding “I even told police don’t blame them.”

Poonam’s mother, Gurpal Dhaiwal, told me that other than original friction between the two families, she did not know of any on going problems within her daughter’s adopted home. Married in 2004, her daughter and Manjinder had met in the GTA in a work setting and it was not an arranged union involving the bride’s family paying a dowry to the groom’s family.

Meanwhile Manjinder, a truck driver, has once again “offered” his previous reward of $25,000 for “any information or any clue” as to the whereabouts of his wife Poonam.

Police say they are looking for information and clues inside a home on Cordgrass Cres.

joe.warmington@sunmedia.ca