Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu
| Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu | |
|---|---|
| Born |
4 August 1975 Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada |
| Died | 8 June 2000 (aged 24) Ludhiana, Punjab, India |
Jaswinder Kaur "Jassi" Sidhu (August 4, 1975 – June 8, 2000) was an Indo-Canadian beautician who was murdered in an alleged honor killing. She was kidnapped, tortured, and killed allegedly on the orders of her mother, Malkiat Kaur Sidhu, and her uncle, Surjit Singh Badesha, near the Kaonke Khosa area of Ludhiana, Punjab.
On a visit to the city of Jagraon, Ludhiana in the Punjab state of India in December 1994, Jassi met and fell in love with Sukhwinder Singh Sidhu (nicknamed Mithu), a rickshaw driver. They kept in touch over the next four years. In 1999, Jassi made another trip to India with her family, the purpose of which was arranging a marriage for her. Instead, she and Sukhwinder met once again and married secretly on March 15, 1999. Her family strongly disapproved of this marriage, supposedly because he was of a lower status than she, and they attempted to persuade her to get a divorce, by first offering to buy her a car and material possessions, and then by beating her. After those attempts were failed, her family pressured her into signing documentation, falsely telling her that it was legal paperwork which would help Sukhwinder come to Canada. Instead, the document contained criminal accusations against Sukhwinder. When Jassi discovered this, she contacted Indian officials, stating that the accusations were false and she was coerced into signing.
After this, her family forcefully took her back to Canada, where she was held under confinement in the family home.
Jassi escaped from family confinement with the help of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who escorted her from the residence. She obtained money from a friend to buy a plane ticket, and flew to India on May 12, 2000, to reunite with Sukhwinder. On June 8, Jassi and Sukhwinder were kidnapped by hitmen hired by her uncle. Sukhwinder was violently beaten and left to die, while Jassi was taken to an abandoned farmhouse, where she was subsequently murdered. On June 9, 2000, her body was found dumped in an irrigation canal 45 km from Kaonke Khosa, her throat had been slit. An investigation by the Indian Police showed that the killers were in contact with her mother and uncle by phone, and it was determined that the order to kill Jassi was given by her mother. Her mother and uncle were arrested on January 6, 2012.
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