25 years after Canadian citizen Jassi’s murder, justice remains elusive

A quarter century has passed since the brutal murder of Jaswinder Kaur Jassi but justice is still awaited.

Advertisement

Born in Canada to Punjabi parents, Jassi was 25 when her life was violently cut short for defying tradition.

Jassi’s crime was that she chose love and her own life partner. She had secretly married Sukhwinder Singh Mithu, a farmer from her mother’s ancestral village, despite opposition from her influential family.

Their love blossomed through hundreds of letters and phone calls.

The couple married secretly in April 1999. In March 2000, Jassi fled to India to be with Mithu, only to find him imprisoned, falsely accused by her family of kidnapping Jassi.

She fought for his release in the court, but on June 8, 2000, their world crashed.

Twelve contract killers ambushed them in Narike village, Sangrur. Mithu was beaten up mercilessly. Jassi’s throat was slit. Her body, scarred and mutilated, was thrown in a water channel.

The plan was to dump the body in Ludhiana. A cop, Sub-Inspector Joginder Singh, was to ensure that the case could be buried as “unsolved”.

But the killers abandoned Jassi’s body in Sangrur. SSP Jatinder Singh Aulakh and SI Swaran Singh cracked the case, exposing the deep conspiracy.

Jassi’s mother Malkiat Kaur Sidhu and her uncle Surjit Singh Badesha had allegedly ordered the murder from Canada.

Phone records revealed over 250 incriminating calls between the conspirators and the killers, some routed through a landline in Kolkata.

Declared proclaimed offenders in 2003, Malkiat and Surjit fought extradition for 18 years before finally being brought to India in January 2018.

A Punjab Police team, led by IPS officer Kuldeep Kaur, secured their arrest in Canada, only to have it blocked by Canada’s Justice Minister at the last moment. Months later, they were finally handed over to the Indian authorities.

Yet justice is awaited. The trial continues in a Malerkotla court. Both accused secured bail during the Covid-19 pandemic even as over 20 witnesses — including police officers, health officials and local residents — await examination.

“We suffer because we have no power — no money to fight back,” said Sukhdev Kaur, mother of Mithu.

“I don’t know if I’ll live to see Jassi’s killers punished, but we won’t give up. The threats and harassment continue, yet we stand firm. Justice may be slow, but we will fight till the very end,” she said. Meanwhile, Mithu has paid an unimaginable price for his love.

His fight for justice has been marred by relentless harassment. Six false cases, including that of rape and drug smuggling, were slapped against him. In 2017, a commission led by Justice Mehtab Singh Gill officially recognised his persecution, recommending the cancellation of the cases.

But the trouble continues. He faces two more cases, one for allegedly possessing drugs. He spent three years in prison before securing bail.

Last month, he was arrested again, accused of being a false witness in a drug peddling case.