Court fines woman accused of abetting brother’s suicide

SHE HAD MOVED THE COURT SEEKING RELEASE OF PROPERTY OF HER DECEASED BROTHER TO HER

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has imposed a fine of `2 lakh on an Amritsar woman, who had sought the release of property of her deceased brother to her. The woman is accused of abetting suicide of her brother, his wife and their two children along with her mother.

“She did not even wait for the conclusion of the trial. Such haste and clamour for property and money by an accused is not only strange but unheard of. I, thus, deem it fit to dismiss this petition with `2 lakh as cost. It will be recoverable from the petitioner,” the high court bench of justice Rajan Gupta said, dismissing the petition of Parminder Kaur.

It was on the intervening night of October 30-31, 2004, that Hardip Singh of Chowk Karori in the walled city, along with his wife, mother and two children, allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison.

Before taking the extreme step, the family had reportedly written the reason for committing suicide on a wall of a room of their house and had even posted suicide notes to their friends.

On the basis of these notes, police had registered a case of abetment to suicide against four relatives of Hardip Singh and arrested them.

In this petition, Parminder Kaur approached the high court against the order passed by the trial court rejecting the application filed by her for releasing the property belonging to deceased Hardip Singh.

As per the complaint recorded in the order, the allegation against the woman was that she had been harassing/blackmailing her brother and his wife on the allegation that they had evidence of Hardip Singh killing his father.

There was a reference of Kultar Singh in the suicide note, who was Amritsar senior superintendent of police (SSP) at the time of the incident.

As per the complaint, recorded in the order, then SSP, Amritsar, Kultar Singh, along, with some other policemen, on getting to know that Hardip Singh had killed his father had demanded `12 lakh to weaken the case.

An amount of ` 5 lakh was also paid to him. Later, Parminder Kaur, who was approached by her brother to depose as a witness in the case, also started blackmailing him. Later, Kultar Singh also allegedly raped Hardip Singh’s wife. All these circumstances later resulted in the family taking the extreme step, says the complaint record in the order.