Daughter’s murder cloud, no rain on Bibi parade

But that didn’t matter. A fierce loyalist of Akali Dal (B) chief Parkash Singh Badal, Jagir Kaur’s election was little more than a formality.

Brushed aside was the CBI case, currently in a Patiala court, that charges her and three associates with abduction and murder.

When asked about it, Jagir Kaur is dismissive: ‘‘I am fully cooperating with the authorities. What matters is not that a case is going on, but the end result…Whenever you rise, there are all kinds of attacks on you.’’

While the death of her daughter was initially dismissed by the local police as a case of suicide, an FIR was registered on October 20, 2000 following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The CBI filed a chargesheet on January 30, 2001, and the case is expected to come up for hearing next month.

According to the chargesheet:

• Jagir Kaur ‘‘conspired to eliminate’’ her daughter after she failed to persuade her to give up the idea of marrying one Kamaljit Singh.

• A close associate of Jagir Kaur, Daljinder Kaur Dhesi, administered a lethal dose of poison to Harpreet. The CBI has alleged that Paramjit Singh Raipur, Dhesi’s relative, was an accomplice in the poisoning.

• The CBI has accused Jagir Kaur of asking B S Sohal, then Medical Officer at the Sant Baba Prem Singh dispensary at Begowal, to suggest a poison that could be used to ‘‘eliminate her daughter.’’

• The chargesheet alleges that Harpreet was abducted from Chandigarh and kept in ‘‘wrongful confinement’’ following which her pregnancy was terminated. It said under the conspiracy it was also decided to eliminate Harpreet and destroy the evidence.

Besides this case, Jagir Kaur was also charged under the Indian Electricity Act for allegedly stealing electricity. She later deposited a little over Rs 45,000 with the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) and the case is now before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kapurthala, S Dhaliwal. That case was filed a few days before the SGPC election in 2002, when the Amarinder Government tried to capture the SGPC by proxy.

Born at Bhatnoora village in Jalandhar, on October 15, 1954, Jagir Kaur was elected the first woman president of this 84-year-old religious body in 1999.

A science graduate from Chandigarh, Jagir worked as a mathematics teacher at Government High School, Begowal, before marrying Bawa Charanjit Singh, the then head of Dera Prem Singh, in 1980.

Her political career began under the tutelage of Simranjit Singh Mann before she switched loyalties to Badal in 1996. She was elected MLA from Bholath on an Akali ticket and was Minister of Tourism and Social Welfare in the Badal Government before becoming the first woman president of the SGPC on March 16, 1999. She was re-elected the next year until she resigned on November 30, 2000 when the CBI charged her with murder.