Jassi-Mithu case: Cops sent to bring ‘killers’ to return empty-handed

The Punjab Police team sent to Canada to take custody of Malkiat Kaur and Surjit Singh Badesha after the Canadian Supreme Court ordered their extradition to India in the case of honour killing of Jaswinder Kaur Jassi in Punjab is set to return home empty-handed.

Jassi, a Canadian resident, was murdered in 2000 by contract killers allegedly at the behest of her mother Malkiat and maternal uncle Badesha after she married Sukhwinder Singh Mithu of Kaunke village near Jagraon in Ludhiana district.

“The British Columbia Court of Appeal, which is hearing the case, has not reached any conclusion and hence our team will board their return flight on Sunday,” Sangrur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu told HT.

A three-member Punjab Police team led by SP (detective) Kanwarpal Kaur reached Vancouver on September 17 after Canada’s apex court ordered extradition of Kaur and Badesha on September 8.

A senior police official involved in the extradition process said since the British Columbia court has not fixed the next date of hearing after the lawyer of the two accused filed a fresh application claiming that has fresh information in the case, there was no point in keeping the police team in a foreign country for long.

“We have talked to the Indian foreign ministry officials in Canada and India and they also advised that the team should come back. The ministry has also assured us to take up the matter through diplomatic channel,” he said.

Interestingly, the police team had completed all extradition formalities and had even reached the Toronto Airport to board a plane for Delhi but the Court of Appeal intervened at the last minute and stayed the extradition.

The latest legal gambit is based on “new information”, apparently related to social media posts which are at variance with the assurances given by India that the duo will get a fair trial and not be mistreated. It was on the basis of these assurances that Canada had agreed to the extradition. `

As per police investigation, the initial plan was to kill only Mithu but he survived the attack. The FIR registered at the Amargarh police station in Sangrur on June 10, 2000. As per police probe, Kaur and Badesha were in touch with the killers after the attack.

Eight accused in the case are already facing life imprisonment and trial of Kaur and Badesha could not be conducted as they were in Canada.

It was a rare case in which extradition was allowed in a case not related to terrorism.