Supreme Court rejects Jagir Kaur''s plea to contest Punjab Assembly poll

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 17

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur's plea for suspension of her conviction in the 2000 murder case of her daughter Harpreet Kaur.

A Bench comprising Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit refused to entertain the plea even as senior counsel Shyam Divan contended that this was necessary to enable his client to contest the February 4 Punjab Assembly poll.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Divan pleaded that she had been sentenced to five years by the trial court only on the charge of criminal conspiracy, not for the substantial offence of murder.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had already stayed the sentence but a stay on the conviction was necessary for contesting the poll, Divan said.

Harpreet had allegedly married a person against the wishes of her mother. Prior to the murder, she was subjected to abortion.

On January 8, 2010, the SC had directed the Patiala Sessions Court to expedite the trial and complete it in six months. One month later, the complainant and Harpreet’s husband Kamaljit Singh had turned hostile. He argued in the trial court that his marriage with Harpreet was “not real and it was mainly to manipulate things.”