Khushpreet murder: After three years, family finds closure in verdict

He added, “both my parents (Khushpreet’s grandparents) have been under shock for the last three years. Khushi was their life. Their health has been deteriorating since then. Even my younger brother, whom the police had suspected as one of the accused, also sustained a heart attack around the time when his evidence was to be recorded in the court,” Lakhbir said while speaking to Newsline.

Also, the entire locality has boycotted the family of Sukhdev – the neighbour, who, along with his brother and an accomplice, has been convicted for Khushpreet’s murder. Sukhdev and Gurvinder’s wives had left the village soon after the two brothers were arrested. “They come here on the day of hearing of the case and once a month to collect the rent from their tenants. They get the house cleaned, stay for a few hours and leave by the evening”, said a resident of the locality, Rashida.

The greatest setback came to the family when they found out who the defence advocate was. Lakhbir said, “The advocate who represented the accused had come to our residence and expressed his condolences. He even offered to fight the case for us. When we came to know that he was representing the accused, we were devastated.”

Khushpreet’s 11-year-old elder brother, Inderpreet, smiled after a long time on Tuesday evening. “We did not discuss Khushi’s case in front of him. He got to know everything through news channels. Since then, he had been keeping to himself. He did not talk much but it was evident that he was missing his younger brother,” said Khushpreet’s mother, Kulwinder.

She added that after their daughter was born, there was a slight improvement in Inderpreet’s behaviour. “He had been happy after his sister, whom we have named Khushpreet Kaur, was born. But I saw him smiling after a long time on Tuesday after he saw the news that the accused were convicted,” Kulwinder said.

Drawing a parallel between the toddler Khushpreet Kaur and the five-year-old late Khushpreet Singh, their father said, “She is like our Khushi was. She keeps smiling all the time and seldom cries. Khushpreet was just the same. In fact, we had named him Khushpreet because he was a very happy child.”