Former Chandigarh cop’s son sentenced to life imprisonment for killing two sisters in 2019

On August 15, 2019, Kuldeep murdered sisters Manpreet Kaur (28) and Rajwant Kaur (27), residents of Baluana village in Fazilka district, who were running a small pharmaceutical company in Zirakpur.

He was arrested at the New Delhi railway station.

Police said Kuldeep, who worked at a call centre in Mohali and lived in Zirakpur, had come in contact with Manpreet while working at the call centre in 2010. The police told the court that Kuldeep had been in a relationship with Manpreet, but the relationship soured in the months leading up to the incident, as the accused suspected that Manpreet was involved with another person.

On the day of the crime, he entered the sisters’ room to check Manpreet’s mobile phones to ascertain the identity of the person he suspected she was involved with, but Rajwant woke up and objected to his presence, leading to the fatal attack on both sisters, police said.

During the trial, the defence argued that the accused was implicated.

However, after hearing arguments and examining the evidence on record, the court held Kuldeep guilty of the offence.

The convict pleaded for leniency, citing personal circumstances, submitting that he is the eldest son of the family, his siblings are married, and his father passed away. He said there was no one else to take care of his mother in his absence. He also said that he had no previous criminal record and that his entire future was at stake. He pleaded innocence and urged the court to take a lenient view in sentencing him.

However, UT public prosecutor Sachin strongly opposed the plea and argued that “the offence was of an extremely grave nature”. He submitted that the convict killed Manpreet by inflicting injuries with a sharp-edged weapon and Rajwant by strangulation.

The public prosecutor urged the court to “impose severe punishment to send a strong message to society and deter similar crimes”.

After hearing arguments from both sides and perusing the case records, the court said the offence committed by the convict was serious and heinous. “The convict had taken the lives of two young women brutally, and the circumstances did not warrant any leniency in sentencing,” the ADSJ noted.

While ruling out a lenient view, the ADSJ observed that the case did not fall under the category of the “rarest of rare” that would merit the death penalty. Consequently, the court sentenced the convict to life imprisonment along with a monetary penalty.