Martyr of marriage

On March 5, 2016, Punjab Police commando Jasbir Singh was reported missing in Chandigarh, two days after leaving home with two friends on a motorcycle. He had with him a bag, his uniform, and identity card, since he had to report to work.

Jasbir’s father found out that the commando hadn’t reached Jalandhar. Jasbir lived at Raipur Khurd in Zirakpur and was posted at the Phase-XI Commando Complex in Mohali. A missing person’s report was registered at the Mauli Jagran police station and the case assigned to a special investigation team, since a Punjab Police man was lost and the department wanted him back at any cost. “The UT police needed to know more about him,” Maloya station house officer Baldev Kumar said. “Therefore, we started quizzing his family, including his father and his wife, Sukhdeep Kaur. The couple had a son aged 16.”


Contrary opinions

ed by inspectors Ranjit Singh L and Baldev Kumar, the SIT included sub-inspectors Tejender Singh and Gurnam. The cops started their regular drill of questioning the member of Jasbir’s family one by one. The commando’s wife told us that Jasbir was a drunkard, who used to get violent with her every now and then.” Police went to Jasbir’s friends and colleagues to confirm. “The friends’ opinion of Jasbir was opposite to wife’s,” inspector Baldev said. “They told us that Jasbir was an earnest official and occasional drinker, that he kept his duty before any other task. Sukhdeep’s body language at the time of recording her statement had raised our doubts.”

It had become a Catch-22 situation for police. “We could not proclaim her a suspect openly, because she was wife of a missing commando,” inspector Baldev said. “We quizzed her deeper to make sure we had examined every angle. We also told Jasbir’family to keep an eye on her and her daily activities. The family said Sukhdeep spent most of her day sitting in her room, fidgeting with her mobile phone.”

Liar, liar

Police started checking Sukhdeep’s call records. The investigation officer said: “She had claimed that when Jasbir had left home, she had seen that he had a bag, an identity card, and his uniform. But on tracing her mobilephone tower location for that day, we found it to be from one of the banks of the Ghaggar river. When we reached the spot, we were surprise to recover the commando’s uniform and identity card. We were now close to solving the puzzle. All we needed was a few missing pieces.” Sukhdeep had made 20 calls to a number the day Jasbir was reported missing. “The number was of Rajpura’s Sahib Singh, Jasbir’s 24-year-old cousin,” the officer said. Troubled by all the quizzing and grilling, Sukhdeep gave in finally and revealed that Jasbir was dead.

Triplecross

Sukhdeep was in an affair with, Sahib, who was a first-year student of the BCA (bachelor of computer applications) course at a college near Chandigarh. “As we unfolded the layers of this case, we learnt that Sukhdeep had drugged Jasbir by spiking his food with sleeping pills,” inspector Baldev said. “The woman had promised to pay Sahib Rs 5 lakh if he killed her husband. Sahib and his friends Gurjinder ‘Neeta’ and Jagtar Singh ‘Rinku’ tied up an unconscious Jasbir, strangulated him, put him in a car, and threw him into a canal near Chumar Khera village in Haryana’s Karnal district.” Earlier, the Patiala police had arrested Sahib and two others on the charges of attempt to murder.

The cops learned that there was more to Sukhdeep’s personality and her many male friends on Facebook. “She had plans to marry Harjit Singh of Bathinda, who was working in Bahrain for the past four to five years. The two had come into contact via Facebook and got close to each other. But she was also in an illicit relationship with Sahib, whom she planned to ditch and move on after playing the victim card,” the inspector said.

The investigators were shocked to find out that Sukhdeep had even met the parents of the guy she wanted to marry and they had got Sukhdeep engaged to their son’s photograph when he had failed to come from Bahrain. The cop said: “On Facebook, Sukhdeep had met a man whom she used to call brother. It is this man who took her to Bathinda, to the parents of the man she wished to marry.”

Search operations

Inspector Baldev said: “Finally, after getting to know the entire story, we started search operations for Jasbir’s body on April 20. It was long after the murder and the chances of finding it intact were low. We met several divers and got lucky when one of them said he knew a place where some of the fished bodies were kept. We called Jasbir’s parents to identify the body.”

The cop said: “This was one of the most interesting blind cases. luck favoured us at every step.”