A case full of mystery, intrigue

LUDHIANA: It was a foolproof police investigation that ensured life imprisonment to Amritpal Kaur alias Pari and four of her accomplices in the sensational acid attack on a bride that took place on December 7 2013

Updated At : 06:44 AM Dec 22, 2016 IST

Accused in the acid attack case in police custody. Acid was poured on a bride at a beauty salon in Ludhiana. A file Photograph

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 21

It was a foolproof police investigation that ensured life imprisonment to Amritpal Kaur, alias Pari, and four of her accomplices in the sensational acid attack on a bride that took place on December 7, 2013. The case was full of mystery and intrigue involving a high-profile socialite of Patiala and her alleged criminal paramour.

Nirmal Singh Dhillon, then Commissioner of Police, today gave credit to his team of the then DCP Harsh Bansal, then ADCP- III Joginder Singh and then ACP- West Gurpreet Kaur Purewal. While giving special credit to then ACP- Crime Gurbans Bains, Dhillon said without his effort the case would have remained a mystery.

While recounting the incident, Dhillon said the girl from Barnala suffered acid burns in a beauty parlour barely a few hours before her marriage.

“Prima facie it appeared to be a crime committed by a jilted lover. A letter was soon recovered by the police, which indicated the involvement of a jilted lover. The victim’s family and even some of the officers in the police suspected the role of a youngster in the incident. He, along with his two suspects, was picked up for questioning from Barnala following information that the youngster was in one-sided love with Harpreet Kaur (acid attack victim). We further learnt that the youth had gone to an astrologer and conducted a ‘hawan’ at his house to stop the wedding. There was a lot of public pressure but somehow I, along with Gurbans Bains, was not convinced. We thought that the letter could have meant to hoodwink the police. We decided to conduct a further probe into the case,” said Nirmal Singh.

The arrest of Pari was indeed sensational. The police team again started investigation and spoke to the groom’s (Honey) mother who knew about the bride’s visit to the beauty parlour.

“Honey’s mother told me that his divorced daughter-in-law Pari had called up on December 6 (a day before the wedding) and asked about the schedule as to when the bride was going to visit the beauty parlour. That was the first clue. We immediately gather the call details and locations of the persons Pari was in touch with. The call location showed the accused persons were in Barnala on December 1 and 6 and at Doraha on December 4 when the pre-wedding function was taking place. They had even tried to threw acid on Harpreet but failed. At Doraha, they had smeared the pandal with blood which caused panic,” said an officer who was part of the investigation.

The police also came to know that Pari had called up at the beauty parlour and referred herself as a sister-in-law of the bride. She then enquired about the time of booking on the pretext of making payment for the bridal makeup.

Pari was contacted and she panicked. Soon her uncle called up the police officials and reportedly offered heavy bribe.

“The case was clear to us. We went to Pari’s house at Ranjit Nagar in Patiala and told her to call her paramour Parwinder Singh, alias Pawan, of Bakshiwala village. Parwinder, who used to enter Pari’s house through the bathroom, was shocked to find the police instead of Pari. He tried to escape and got injured,” said the investigating officer.

Pari did it out of jealousy

Pari was married to Honey’s elder brother Sunny, a native of Doraha, who owns a huge chain of pubs and transport business in Kolkata. Pari had a troubled marriage and was divorced 10 years after wedding. She, along with her two children, was living with her parents at a house in Patiala. She was married to an England-based NRI, who left her after solemnising marriage. Pari developed an intimate relationship with Parwinder Singh, a notorious criminal of the area. She got upset when she came to know from an old servant that Honey was getting married to a Barnala-based girl. Pari shared her anguish with Parvinder. Parwinder initially hatched a plan to kill Honey and Sunny but Pari rejected the idea, as both brothers were influential businessmen and the police would have easily suspected her involvement in the planned murders. Finally, they decided to target the victim and as per the plan Parwinder, along with Sunpreet, Rakesh, Gursewak and Jaspreet, reached the beauty parlour and threw acid on the victim.