69-year-old NRI woman killed by fiancé’s hitman, remains found in Ludhiana drain

The accused had confessed to murdering Rupinder Kaur Pandher after being hired by her 67-year-old UK-based fiancé Charanjit Singh Grewal.

A day after the two-month-old mysterious disappearance case of a 69-year-old US-based NRI woman was unearthed with the arrest of a Kila Raipur resident for her murder, the Ludhiana police on Wednesday said it recovered her skeletal remains from a drain near Ghungrana village. The victim’s badly damaged iPhone, believed to be discarded to destroy evidence, was also seized, officials said.

The deceased, Rupinder Kaur Pandher, is said to have been murdered in Kila Raipur village on July 12.

According to the police, accused Sukhjeet Singh, who works as a typist in the courts’ complex, confessed to murdering Rupinder Kaur Pandher after being hired by her 67-year-old UK-based fiancé Charanjit Singh Grewal.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Rupinder Singh confirmed that Sukhjeet had been contracted by Charanjit Singh Grewal, who allegedly wanted to get rid of her because he was unwilling to marry her despite promising to do so. “Sukhjeet brutally bludgeoned her using baseball bats, killing her in cold blood in his house in Kila Raipur village on July 12. Then he burnt her body on charcoal in a storeroom, stuffed the charred remains in four gunny bags and dumped the same in the drain at Ghungrana,” the DCP said.

The police said the motive behind the gruesome crime was Charanjit’s reluctance to solemnise marriage with Rupinder Kaur. Charanjit is already married, but Rupinder Kaur was single after two broken marriages. Charanjit had met Sukhjeet Singh in 2014 when they campaigned for a political party in elections, cops said. Charanjit later requested him to help Rupinder with her property dispute case as he worked in the court complex.

She used to stay in the house of Sukhjit Singh during her visits to Ludhiana. She had transferred her power of attorney to Sukhjit to fight the court cases.

Rupinder Kaur had transferred substantial sums of money—estimated to be around ₹30 lakh to ₹35 lakh—to Sukhjeet Singh and Charanjit Singh Grewal. She was under the impression that the money was for the wedding expenses.

When Charanjit began avoiding her and refused to marry her, he allegedly instructed Sukhjeet to eliminate her, promising a payment of ₹50 lakh, which is still pending, police said, adding that the victim had once told Sukhjeet that she would file an FIR against Charanjit if no marriage takes place.

Inspector Sukhjinder Singh of Dehlon police station said Charanjit lured Rupinder to India after falsely assuring her of marriage. Days after Rupinder Kaur was murdered, her US-based sister Kamaljit Khaizah contacted Sukhjeet to know about her whereabouts. To avoid suspicion, Sukhjeet himself filed a missing person’s complaint in August, falsely claiming that Rupinder had left for Delhi airport to attend a wedding in Canada and had not been seen since then.

A forensic science team has been pressed into service to collect and analyse as much evidence as possible, and investigators are now focused on tracing the financial trail of money transfers from Rupinder’s accounts to the accused.

The DCP confirmed that Charanjit remains in the UK and has been named as a suspect in the FIR, which now includes charges under Sections 103 (murder) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the BNS Act.

Expressing anguish, victim’s sister Kamaljit Khaizah, who too is a US citizen, said, “She was promised marriage and a better life but ended up being murdered in the most inhumane way. She met Charanjit Singh through a matrimonial website one year ago. Rupinder came here and went missing mysteriously. I had also contacted the US embassy in India, which escalated the case to local police authorities.”

Kamaljit also added that she was having an old property dispute with Rupinder in which her sister was declared a proclaimed offender by the court.