A disturbing case that began with illicit sex, which resulted in the woman becoming pregnant and giving birth to a baby, who was promptly killed and buried, led to the sentencing of Bakshinderpal Singh Mann, 31, in California last month to six years in prison, including time served. Mann was the final defendant in the case, and pleaded no contest to his role in the child’s death last year.
Case
The heartbreaking case happened in 2018 when the child’s grandmother Beant Dhillon drowned and died in November. She told investigators that she killed the child because her daughter was a minor and unmarried.The unmarried mother was 15 years old when 23-year-old Maan got her pregnant. The mother hid her pregnancy until giving birth in the bathroom of the family’s Bakersfield home on November 12, 2018. Dhillon immediately took the child and drowned herself because she feared that her unmarried daughter’s pregnancy would bring shame to the family within the local Sikh community.Investigators said Mann helped bury the child’s body in a shallow grave in the backyard.According to the police report, Jagseer Singh, father of the teen’s mother, told the police that he was not at home during the child’s birth and death, but was informed about what happened later. He told police that he allowed the child to be buried in the backyard and did not seek medical help for his daughter because he was worried that his wife would throw him out of the house and he might be deported.
disclosure of the matter
There were no reports of the newborn being killed and no one knew what happened. The teenage mother fainted after giving birth and was later told that the baby had been given up for adoption. Months later, after a family dispute when she learned that the child was actually buried in the backyard, she told school counselors, who alerted the police. Investigators recovered the infant’s remains in the backyard on February 26, 2019.Mann was already under immigration surveillance and had a GPS monitor fitted. But after the discovery of the child’s remains, Mann removed his GPS monitor and fled to Canada, where he lived for two years. He was arrested in Canada in 2021 and remains in Canadian custody pending the completion of extradition proceedings.He was returned to Kern County in late 2024, entered into a plea agreement in September 2025, and was sentenced in June. Defense lawyer Elliot Magnus said the years Mann spent in custody in Canada will count toward his sentence. “Hopefully this will bring closure to the case for everyone and they’ll be able to move on,” Magnus said after the sentencing.
What happened to the others?
Dhillon was convicted of first-degree murder in 2020 and is serving 29 years in prison. Jagseer Singh, who was charged as an accessory, committed suicide after getting bail in 2019.