No Justice for Jassi

The story of Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu is as haunting as it is tragic.

The daughter of a wealthy blueberry farming family, Jaswinder, Jassi to her friends, graduated from a Maple Ridge high school and went on to train as a beautician. On one of her frequent trips to her family’s village in the Punjab, she met Sukhwinder (Mithu) Singh, an auto rickshaw driver. It was love at first sight. After many clandestine meetings, their devotion deepened, and with it their fear Jaswinder’s family would not approve of the marriage. They secretly married in April 1999. When her family discovered the union, they filed a police report claiming Jaswinder, 25, was forced into the marriage by Mithu, who, they stated, married her for her money. It was only after Jaswinder was able to get a letter to authorities disputing the charges that Mithu was exonerated.

Jaswinder’s letter read: I was threatened by my family and was then physically forced by them to sign the letter stating that our marriage was null and void.
All of the above is a matter of public record, reported by Indian and Canadian newswires and newspapers such as the Asian Pacific News Service, Canadian Press, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province and The Asian Pacific Post from interviews and statements with those involved, including Mithu, police officials and lawyers in India and Canada, as well as from Indian police court papers. From those reports and interviews comes speculation about what happened next, which has yet to be proven in a court of law, either in India or Canada. According to accounts published in The Vancouver Province and Vancouver Sun, Indian police are investigating whether Jaswinder’s mother, Malkiat Kaur, and uncle, Surjit Singh Badesha, had any connection to the alleged hiring of assassins in India to punish the couple. Both deny any involvement.

On June 8, 2000, while riding a scooter near the village of Sangrur in Punjab, Jaswinder and Mithu were ambushed by at least seven men. Mithu was severely beaten and left for dead. According to a Vancouver Province story published in July 2000, the Sangrur district police chief in Punjab, senior superintendent Jatinder Aulak, alleges that Jaswinder was kidnapped and taken to an abandoned farmhouse. Aulak, who sought an arrest warrant for Malkiat Kaur on suspicion that she may be connected to the contract killing told the Province’s Fabian Dawson that the instructions to the gang leader to punish her daughter for disobedience came from Malkiat Kaur’s phone.
Jaswinder’s body, beaten and strangled, was found in a canal near Kaonke Khosa, Punjab, where the newlyweds had settled just three months earlier.

Since the young woman’s body was found, efforts by Indian police to have Jaswinder’s mother and uncle extradited to India to face charges have been tangled in a web of intrigue, alleged corruption and international law. Canada will not extradite to a country with the death penalty, so charges were lowered to conspiracy to commit murder. Still, the wheels of justice grind glacially.
It’s very much an active investigation, RCMP Staff Sergeant John Ward tells Mehfil. We have investigators assigned to this and they have been for some time. They have travelled to India on several occasions to deal with Indian authorities. We continue to liaise with them on this matter. When asked if he’s confident those investigations will result in a trial, he says, We’re not quite sure of that yet. We need to carry out our investigation to its conclusion. We need to make sure we’ve done our jobs, then we need to sit down with Crown Counsel and give them what we have. Crown then determines whether or not a charge can be laid here in B.C.

Meanwhile, back in India, according to an interview with senior superintendent Aulak published in The Province shortly after the incident, nine others, including another uncle of Jaswinder’s, an Indian police inspector and the leader of a local gang, were arrested in connection with the case. According to Sgt. Ward, that investigation is ongoing. At the same time, Mithu’s lawyer, Ashwani Chowdury, told The Asian Pacific Post his client has been offered bribes for his silence. He says that when he refused, he was threatened, his home riddled with gunfire, and his friends attacked. He was then given 24-hour police protection and permission to carry a gun. Now, rape charges Chowdury claims are false have been brought against Mithu, landing him in jail, where he sits today.

According to film producer Hugh Beard, who met in India with investigating officers, as well as with Sukhwinder Mithu Singh and his mother as part of his preparation for the movie Murder Unveiled, the fictional story of a young woman from B.C. who secretly marries a poor man in Punjab, the investigation is ongoing, albeit in fits and starts.
When we went to India to talk about the story, we had to go to the police chief first before we could talk to the investigating officer, Beard recalls. The chief said, I was wondering when the RCMP would come over here.’ We said, We’re not RCMP, we’re filmmakers.’ I don’t know what the RCMP are doing about this. I don’t know if they think, Well, it doesn’t really affect us because it’s another country and they have a whole other justice system.’ The initial response from the RCMP was that they have no jurisdiction . . . I’m not a lawyer, but I would think [there] would be enough grounds for the RCMP to act.

Asked about their investigations, RCMP Staff Sgt. John Ward responds, Without being specific about India or any other country, whenever we’re dealing with international law enforcement, we need to remember that their laws are not our laws and vice versa. Their rules about their citizens are different, in many cases, than what our rules are. So it becomes a matter of having to be very patient and going through the proper channels to achieve the goal that we’re trying to reach, which is a report to Crown Counsel that would support a charge.

Meanwhile, Jaswinder Sidhu is dead, no one has been brought to justice for her murder, and her husband has been terrorized and jailed on rape charges he claims are false.

I spent three days with Mithu and to me it seemed uncharacteristic of him, it’s not the sort of thing he would do, says Beard. The reality is, in India it’s very easy to get charges brought against somebody. You pay a corrupt policeman, you get a woman to swear this happened, a doctor who gives false evidence. We saw all sorts of cases like that.

It’s a tragic situation. If he is truly innocent of the charges . . . it’s just a travesty of justice.