Woman Accused of Attempted Drowning of Children Faces Trial

Glancing nervously at their weeping mother, the son and daughter of Narinder Virk described for a judge Thursday how she led them to a darkened harbor channel last month and pushed them off a dock.

Both said their mother then held them under water until they couldn’t breathe.

“My mom was drowning us,” testified 9-year-old Sonny Virk, who recalled how he fought to get his head above water. “She was pushing us down.”

Sonny and his 6-year-old sister, Harpreet, were the first witnesses to take the stand at their mother’s preliminary hearing.

Their testimony provided sufficient evidence for Ventura County Superior Court Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. to order Virk to stand trial on two counts of attempted murder.

The judge also rejected a defense request to reduce bail, saying the evidence strongly suggests the 39-year-old Port Hueneme woman intentionally tried to drown her children in a residential area near Channel Islands Harbor.

Virk’s supporters were disappointed with the decision. They believe she is a battered wife who momentarily lost her mind when her husband flew to India to seek a divorce.

“She was a confused woman,” Amarjit S. Marwah, a Sikh community leader and dentist in Los Angeles, said outside the courtroom. “I don’t think she had plans to drown herself or her children.”

During Thursday’s preliminary hearing, Virk, a slight woman with long dark hair, sobbed uncontrollably as her children were brought into court.

Harpreet was the first to take the stand.

Wearing jeans and a white blouse with hair braided into pigtails, the 6-year-old walked past her mother and raised her arm to take the oath.

Under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Dee Corona, the girl described what happened at the harbor on Jan. 12. Harpreet testified her mother had dressed her in brown pants and a shirt, telling her they were “going to go to the beach to wash our faces.”

After her brother put on a jacket, they left the house and walked to the nearby harbor--leaving a bird cage covered with a blanket on a neighbor’s step. At the dock, Harpreet said, they sat on the edge of a boat ramp with their feet almost touching the water.

“I tell her I didn’t want to go in the water because I didn’t know what to do,” she said, referring to the fact that she couldn’t swim.

Harpreet said her mother didn’t say anything in response, but pushed her and her brother in the water and jumped in with them.

“I was trying to get up, but I couldn’t because I didn’t know how to swim,” she testified. “She was pushing me under the water.”