Murder in Punjab, plot in Canada

Investigators suspect Jasbir was killed by contract killers hired by his former girlfriend, Amanpal Gill. The police have registered a case against Amanpal and her brother Gursewak Singh Gill, both NRIs.

Police say Gursewak and Jasbir, a trailer driver in Canada, had worked together for some time. Amanpal had reportedly been insisting on marriage but Jasbir had turned down her proposal before coming to India on January 7. His father Nirmal Singh, on whose complaint the case was registered, his mother and sister had come earlier in December to finalise his marriage.

Jasbir’s brother-in-law Rajvinder Singh, also a Canadian citizen, said even though Jasbir was having an affair with Amanpal, he had made it clear that he would not marry her. “She had threatened that if he married some other girl in India, he would never return to Canada,” claimed Rajvinder.

The family, which emigrated five years ago, was to return to Canada in a few days. Moga SP Ashok Bath said investigations revealed that Gursewak, originally from Goasgarh village in Ludhiana, was seen in the area on Tuesday. “We are told that he attended a marriage ceremony,” said the SP, adding that Gursewak had landed in India on January 27, most likely with the intention of getting Jasbir eliminated.

The police are not clear whether Gursewak is still in India or has left the country, and have issued lookout notices for him at airports. Amanpal Gill’s father Punjab Singh Gill works as property dealer in Ludhiana. “He did not open his shop today,” said the SSP said.

This is not the first suspected case of a contract killing ordered by an NRI. There have been at least a dozen cases in the region in the past two years.

• SGPC member Kuldeep Singh from Mukerian was shot on October 20, 2005 following a property dispute with US-based NRI Gurdev Singh. The police said the contract killer was paid Rs 12 lakh.

• Jasbir Singh Jassa, the main accused in the murder case of NRI Mohan Singh, a Leicester-based textile factory owner who was shot dead while having his meal at a dhaba near Phillaur in August, 2006, confessed to having done it at the behest of the NRI’s brother Sukhjivan Singh.

• Surinder Pal Singh, an Australian NRI from Bara Pind village near Goraya, hired contract killers for Rs 11 lakh to eliminate his nephew Tirath Singh with whom he had a property dispute. Tirath Singh survived two attempts.

• At Nawanshahr, the police found out that NRI Jasbir Singh, who is settled in Germany, had given a contract of Rs 1 lakh for killing his wife’s brother Sarabjit Singh Sabba due to a property dispute.

DIG Jalandhar range Narinder Pal Singh attributed the increasing number of contract killings to property disputes. “NRIs indulging in crime are also under the impression that they would not be caught while sitting abroad but it is not the case, and the police have been booking such NRIs,” he said.

(additional reporting by Anju Agnihotri Chaba in Jalandhar)