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Surrey drug trafficker's bid to stay charges dismissed

Gursimar Singh Bedi to be sentenced later this month; Bedi also charged in Maple Batalia murder.
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A self-confessed Surrey drug trafficker who argued convicting him would be an abuse of process has failed to have his case tossed out.

Gursimar Singh Bedi pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in cocaine, but during a July hearing, applied for a judicial stay of proceedings.

According to details included in an Aug. 16 B.C. Provincial Court decision, an undercover police officer bought cocaine from Bedi after making calls to a dial-a-dope number.

Bedi's lawyer argued that because the same police officer made a call to the same phone number months earlier – buying cocaine from an unknown male – that the initial call constituted entrapment because the officer lacked reasonable suspicion the man was involved in trafficking. Because the prosecution of Bedi is linked to the alleged entrapment, argued the defence, convicting him would be an abuse of process.

Judge A.E. Rounthwaite disagreed, saying there was a detailed tip about the trafficking operation and a attempt to corroborate it before the call in question was made by police.

" Even if the defence submissions about reasonable suspicion could be accepted… viewed as a whole, the police conduct in this case would not violate notions of fair play and decency," wrote Rounthwaite while dismissing Bedi's application for a stay of proceedings.

Bedi is also one of two men accused in the death of 19-year-old student Maple Batalia, who was shot in the parkade outside the SFU Surrey campus four years ago. He is charged with manslaughter and accessory after the fact, while Batalia's ex-boyfriend Gurjinder (Gary) Dhaliwal is charged with first-degree murder. That trial isn't expected to begin until sometime early next year.

Bedi is scheduled to be sentenced for the drug trafficking convictions on Sept. 23.