The husband of missing New Westminster woman Nirla Sharma has been released on bail after previously being charged with threatening his wife, then violating bail conditions. The couple’s daughter insists her father is distraught by her mother’s disappearance and played no role in it.
Rishi Deo Sharma, 44, is accused of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm on Jan. 25, then breaching three release orders between Jan. 26 and Feb. 25 after his arrest. None of the charges have been proved in court.
A Feb. 28 release order shows that Risha Sharma is now required to follow 12 conditions. He is due back in court March 4.
Vanessa Sharma, 20, has been searching for her mother and putting up missing-person posters around the city. Search-and-rescue teams and police have been working around the clock, and keeping in close contact with the family, she said.
Her father’s charges are a distraction from what matters more than anything right now, which is finding her mom, she said.
“I know — and everybody that truly knows us knows — that there is nobody that my dad loves more than my mom, aside from his kids,” she said.
Vanessa Sharma said she spoke with her father Friday and he could barely get a word out because he is so distraught about his high-school sweetheart going missing. She has hope that she will be found soon.
“My mom is the toughest person that I know and that’s the only reason that I feel like I’ve been keeping it together as well as I have been,” she said. “We just want to hug her and tell her how much we missed her, and how much we love her, and just never let her go.”
Nirla Sharma, a 44-year-old mother of two, was last seen last Sunday about 9 p.m. at her home in the 300-block of Lawrence Street.
Her family told police she had gone to bed wearing pink pyjamas and a pink T-shirt. Family members heard the front door chime at about 4 a.m. on Monday, but Sharma, who typically arrives at her job at B.C. Hydro in Vancouver at about 6:30 a.m., didn’t make it into work and hasn’t been heard from since.
The New West police major-crime unit is investigating her disappearance. Sharma, who left her keys, wallet and cellphone at home, is being treated as a high-risk missing person.
“We are very concerned for Mrs. Sharma because she has not shown up for work, and there are no obvious reasons why she left at 4 a.m. She left without telling anyone, and did not take any of her personal belongings, which is out of character for her,” New West police Sgt. Jeff Scott said last week. “We are asking for the public’s help to locate her so that we can ensure her well-being.”
