Police team to go to Canada for extraditing mother, uncle
British Columbia court dismisses plea to stay extradition; judges observe the applicants charged with ’the most serious crime’
With a British Columbia (BC) court dismissing the plea to stay extradition of mother and uncle of Jaswinder Jassi, a Canadian national killed for honour in Punjab in 2000, the Punjab Police will again send a team to Canada to bring the two to India to face trial.
Jassi’s mother Malkiat Kaur Sidhu and maternal uncle Surjit Singh Badesha are accused of hiring contract killers to kill her for marrying against the family’s wishes. She was 25.
Jassi and her husband Sukhwinder Singh Sidhu alias Mithu, a resident of Kaunke village of Ludhiana district, were riding a scooter somewhere in Punjab on June 8, 2000, when they were attacked by a group of armed men. While Sukhwinder was seriously injured, Jassi was forced into a car and later found dead near a canal with her throat slit.
Malkiat and Badesha were arrested by Canadian police in 2012 for the alleged honour killing. A Sangrur court in 2005 had awarded life imprisonment to eight accused. Kaur and Badesha could not be brought to India to face trial. In September last year, the Canadian Supreme Court had allowed extradition of the two and a Punjab Police team was sent to Canada to bring them back. However, extradition had to be held back as the accused moved BC court for stay on extradition citing bad conditions in Punjab jails and “wrong process” followed.
Appeal Court chief justice Robert Bauman and Justice Sunny Stromberg-Stein dismissed the request for a judicial review on Tuesday, claimed reports in Canadian media.
“The applicants are charged with the most serious crimes and have had the opportunity to challenge their extradition over a seven-year period. Their submissions implicating India’s prison system have been considered by two ministers of justice, this court and the Supreme Court of Canada (sic),” they observed.
The judges agreed there was an abuse of process when Badesha and Malkiat were “covertly” taken from their jails in September 2017 and transported to Toronto for extradition without being able to talk to their lawyers.
DGP Suresh Arora said they have not received an official communication on the development but as soon as they get a word from Canada, a team will bring the two to India.