VANCOUVER – The mother and the uncle of a woman killed in the Punjab more than 11 years ago – allegedly because her wealthy Canadian family was scandalized by her secret marriage to a poor rickshaw driver – were taken into custody over the weekend facing possible extradition to India to be tried for the murder.
It’s the next step toward possible justice in the sensational murder, the news of which was first broken by the Vancouver Province less than two weeks after the gruesome killing in 2000 of the young and beautiful Jassi Sidhu and the near-fatal beating of the devoted man she loved.
Malkit Kaur Sidhu, 63, and Surjit Singh Badesha, 67, both of Maple Ridge, B.C., were arrested under the Extradition Act in the murder of Malkit’s 25-year-old daughter Jassi in India’s Punjab state, B.C. RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Annie Linteau said in a news release Friday.
She said the Indian and Punjabi police services, whose investigations convicted seven people in Punjab in the murder, “uncovered evidence indicating Jassi Sidhu’s family (was) involved in the homicide from Canada.”
The alleged involvement was long-suspected since Jassi married Mithu Singh Sidhu on March 15, 1999, and faced harassment, threats and pressure to divorce.
Linteau said the RCMP Ridge Meadows detachment received an official request from Indian authorities to investigate and later the RCMP’s Serious Crime unit “worked closely with the Indian police to pursue extradition.”
RCMP Serious Crime investigators and Canadian government officials went to India a number of times to gather information “instrumental in the extradition process” in an “exhaustive 11-year international investigation,” said Linteau.
The release didn’t include information on why the arrests took more than a decade and Linteau said the RCMP won’t be commenting further, “as the matter is now before the courts.”
Harbinder Singh Sewak, publisher of the South Asian Post, which won a Jack Webster journalism award for the paper’s crusade to help Mithu against false imprisonment imprisonment on a bogus rape charge, founded the website called justiceforjassi.com.
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“For the longest time nobody seemed to have an answer as to why charges have never been brought against the people,” he said. “I can only hope that justice will finally be found for Jassi.”
Sewak said he sought to help Mithu to show the Sikh community condemns so-called “honour killings.”
“There is no honour in honour killings and this has nothing to do with our culture or religion.”
“Jassi’s story is a modern day tragedy of shame, sorrow and forbidden love spanning an East-West cultural divide,” said Fabian Dawson, deputy editor of the Province, who broke the story in 2000.
Her tragic story is detailed in the book Justice for Jassi he co-wrote with Sewak, released three weeks ago. Dawson’s reporting was also the basis for three documentaries and a TV movie.
Dawson, who spoke to an emotional Mithu after the arrests at his home in Punjab through an interpreter, said Mithu felt without media pressure no one would have been held accountable in Jassi’s death.
Mithu said he is willing to travel to Canada to testify.
“My life is a living hell, but I will always love my Jassi,” he said. “What did she do other than love me?”
“Justice has finally been met to some extent,” he said. “I am waiting for the day when Jassi’s mother and uncle would be brought to India. But I may not like to see such faces. I have always wished for exemplary punishment for Jassi’s mother.”
The case dates back to when Jassi, who grew up at the multi-family compound of the wealthy Badesha clan in Maple Ridge, married Mithu in Punjab after a four-year clandestine long-distance relationship in which they traded love letters. Maple Ridge is 40 kilometres east of Vancouver.
A year later, the newlyweds were ambushed in Punjab in June 2000. Jassi’s throat was slashed and Mithu was seriously injured.
Seven other individuals have already been convicted in India for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
India’s request for extradition of Malkit and Badesha, who are both Canadian citizens, date back to 2004, under a 1987 treaty Canada signed with India.
Extradition requests are complex and usually stretch out for years.
After laying charges against the pair, India would have requested a provisional arrest in Canada through Interpol, said Vancouver lawyer Ravi Hira.
After Canadian officials executed an arrest warrant, on Jan. 5, India has 45 days to provide evidence implicating Canadian suspects in the crime before a extradition hearing can be scheduled.
The federal justice minister has to first determine there is a “mirror” crime in Canada before the evidence is sent to the B.C. Supreme Court, where the judge only has to be satisfied that the crime was committed on the less strenuous principle of a “balance of probabilities” used in civil cases, as opposed to “beyond a reasonable doubt” required in criminal cases, said Hira.
But the judge does have to determine that all elements of a charge are represented in the evidence, including, for instance, in a first degree murder, that it was planned and deliberate, there were steps taken to kill and there was the intention to kill.
“We’re extraditing our citizens to another country,” said Hira. “We’ve got to make sure the evidence is reasonable” and that the Canadian Charter isn’t being violated.
Hira said it would be difficult for Canadian police to lay charges in Canada for a crime that occurred elsewhere, which is allowed for under the Canadian Criminal Code, because that would mean importing all the witnesses and evidence in this case from India.
He said that would necessitate RCMP gathering all evidence, including autopsy results, witnesses, the murder weapon and other forensic evidence that would connect the suspects to the crime scene.
“If I were the prosecutor, I would have to adduce the evidence from India to determine if I had a case,” he said.
And Hira said, “The defence certainly want to test the quality of that evidence.”
He also said it was difficult to comment on why the case would have taken 11 years to get to get to the arrest stage but the fact that arrests were made shows “there is a serious will to prosecute.”
Federal justice department spokeswoman Lyse Cantin wasn’t available for comment on Saturday and it’s not known how long the suspects will remain in custody or the date of their court appearance.
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