Woman in Drowning Case Seeks Lower Bail

An attorney plans to ask a judge today to reduce bail for an Indian immigrant who allegedly tried to drown her two children last month in an apparent murder-suicide attempt.

Deputy Public Defender Christina Briles contends that her client, 39-year-old Narinder Virk, is illiterate and impoverished and poses no flight risk.

Briles wants Virk’s $500,000 bail lowered to $50,000 so supporters can post a bond for her client’s release.

“These people want to provide Narinder with a home, with shelter, with support and counseling,” Briles wrote in a declaration to Superior Court Judge Art Gutierrez.

“If reasonable bail were set,” she argued, “Narinder would find a whole community willing to provide her with assistance in every possible way.”

Virk, a Port Hueneme resident with no criminal record, is facing two counts of attempted murder.

Prosecutors say she intentionally held her 6-year-old daughter, Harpreet, and 9-year-old son, Sonny, underwater in Channel Islands Harbor on Jan. 12.

Authorities believe Virk also intended to kill herself, but a former lifeguard who heard a child’s plaintive cries rescued the family.

Briles and supporters of Virk argue that she is a battered woman who “snapped” after enduring years of domestic abuse. They believe she should not be facing such severe criminal charges.

“She had no other way to go,” said Dr. Amarjit S. Marwah, a Sikh community leader who practices dentistry in Los Angeles.

“This type of behavior which we see in her case has been happening in our community pretty often,” Marwah said. “Our culture is such that a woman who is being battered like this cannot go out and share her story.”

Virk’s arrest has galvanized Indian organizations and Sikh temples throughout Southern California. Supporters believe cultural factors lie at the heart of the case, and they are now rallying around her.

Calling themselves the Friends of Narinder Virk, sympathizers have created a Web site with information about her case.

They have raised a few thousand dollars for her bail and other expenses, and are now circulating petitions in hopes of persuading prosecutors to reduce the charges.

Briles said she has never seen such support for a defendant.

“It is a growing phenomenon,” she said. “I think they are just saying, here you have the ultimate victim, the ultimate vulnerable person caught up now in our sophisticated high-rolling criminal justice system. The contrast is remarkable.”

Virk was born in a small village in northern India. She was never educated and can neither read nor write--not in her native Punjabi, and not in English, her lawyer said.

Virk’s parents arranged her marriage at age 18, Briles said. In 1991, Virk and her husband moved to the United States, and by 1995 the relationship turned violent, Briles said. In her declaration, the attorney alleges that there were beatings, insults and death threats.

Briles said the breaking point came on Jan. 12 when Virk discovered her husband, Santokh, had returned to India and intended to file for divorce.

“The ultimate shame had been added to years of abuse, neglect and abandonment,” Briles wrote. “It was too much for any human to withstand.”

Prosecutor Dee Corona was out of town and could not be reached for comment Friday.

Contacted at his Oxnard liquor store, Santokh Virk, who returned from India after the Jan. 12 incident, declined to respond to the allegations leveled by his wife’s attorney and supporters.

“No, thank you,” he said. “I don’t want anything in the paper, please.”