Indian police are seeking the extradition of a Canadian mother of two whom they accused hired contract killers to murder her husband in Punjab.
They alleged Pawandeep Kaur, 35, who lives in the Greater Toronto area paid Rs 2.75 lakh (about CAD$5,300) to the killers and had promised another Rs 25 lakh when the deed was done.
Pawandeep Kaur’s husband Jaskaran Singh’s body was found in Sawara village in Kharar, Punjab on March 16 with multiple stab wounds. He was 38.
The case is the latest in a string of contract killings and attempted murders of Indo-Canadians and other Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in Punjab that mostly stem from marital and property disputes.
Indian police announced the pending extradition request after the arrest of four men whom they say were part of the gang allegedly hired by Pawandeep Kaur.
They claim that Pawandeep, had an estranged relationship with her husband, Jaskaran Singh and also wanted to grab his property.
Police also claim she was having an affair with two of the four men allegedly involved in the murder. 
The accused were identified as Lakhbir Singh 32, the alleged contract killer; Davinder Singh alias Prince ,25, Bhawanpreet Bhangu , 25, and Gurpreet Singh alias Soni ,25. 
Davinder holds a bachelor’s degree in computer applications (BCA) and worked with the Nawanshahr district transport office, Bhawanpreet Bhangu from Ropar is also a BCA; Gurpreet is a BCA and is a bus conductor at Ropar.
Outlining their case to Indian media, police said that on the day of the murder, alleged hitman Lakhbir approached Jaskaran as a property buyer and the duo decided to go view properties. 
At a vacant plot near the Government Middle School in Mohali , Jaskaran was stabbed repeatedly with a knife and the body was dumped in the fields. A woman passerby later spotted his body around 4am.
“Pawandeep conspired to kill Jaskaran as they had an estranged relationship and she also wanted his property. The couple jointly owns a house in Toronto where she is presently living,” said Nagar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar.
He alleged that Pawandeep was having an affair with Gurpreet Singh alias Soni since 2013 and later also developed intimate relations with Bhangu, who introduced her to contract killer Lakhbir Singh.
Bhullar said police suspected the hand of a family member in the crime and had been monitoring Pawandeep since Jaskaran’s body was found.
“Pawandeep transferred Rs 2 lakh to Bhangu through Western Union that alerted us. Another Rs 75,000 was sent directly to the account of contract killer Lakhbir,” the SPP said..
After the murder, Lakhbir fled from the district to Delhi in the victim’s Swift Dzire that has been recovered from his possession. He had fitted a fake registration plate and kept on using the car.
Indian media said that in a brazen show of overconfidence, Pawandeep, along with her children, had even visited the Swara village to attend the last rites of Jaskaran. She had returned to Canada telling police that her children had to complete their exams. 
“We did suspect her, but did not have evidence to nail her. She was thus allowed to leave. We will approach the Canadian embassy for her arrest,” the SSP added.
Police described Lakhbir as a double murder convict serving life terms. He was released on parole in 2012 from the Patiala Jail. He is a proclaimed offender and figures as an accused in four other cases.
Jaskaran and Pawandeep had married 14 years ago.
Indian police and legal experts tell the South Asian Post that the worrying trend of NRI contract killings is rising because the culprits believe that India cannot extradite them.
In many of the cases, poorly paid Indian policemen play a role in the killings or help cover-up evidence after getting paid in overseas dollars.
In most cases, broken marriages, illicit affairs and property disputes are the main reasons why NRIs are ordering people killed. 
The killings are carried out in Punjab and not in the adopted countries of these NRIs because of the lax laws in India.
The money involved in each contract killing, according to police officials, is anything between C$5,000 to C$125,000.
Over the last few years, there have been at least two dozen contract killings involving NRIs in Punjab.
Most of the cases occurred in Punjab’s Doaba belt — the land between the Sutlej and Beas rivers comprising the districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr — where most of Canada’s South Asians hail from.
“NRIs sitting abroad think that they can get away with it by getting the crime committed in Punjab through contract killers,” Jalandhar range deputy inspector general Narinder Pal Singh, was quoted as saying in the South Asian Post in a expose on the contract killings.
“They are wrong.”
Here are some of the other contract murder cases involving Canadian NRIs in India:
In November 2005, police allege that Vancouver businessman Bachan Singh Kingra was hacked to death by two hired assassins. The killers were allegedly hired by his oldest daughter, Balwinder Kaur, who was irked by her 64-year-old father’s plan to get a new bride, have a son and give him the family land.
In July 2007, Indian police arrested Calgary resident Jagtar Singh Mallhi, 32, who had orchestrated a fake car crash with the help of hired killers to murder his wife. He was allegedly upset that his wife would not consent to his illiterate cousin getting married to her university-educated sister.
In August 2003, Canadian doctor Asha Goel was the victim of a brutal beating death in Mumbai, India. There had been a rift among her siblings over a multi-million-dollar inheritance. Dr. Goel, 62, was chief obstetrician at the Headwaters Health Centre in Orangeville, Ontario. 
In January 2008, Indian police alleged that a Surrey family hired a group of contract killers for about C$3,000 to kill Ranphool Singh of Mundiya village after he failed to come up with the promised Rs30 lakh rupees (C$76,000) dowry for his daughter. Police arrested the contract killers while they were on their way to commit the murder.
The most prominent of the NRI contract killings involve the 2000 murder of a Jaswinder Kaur, a beautician from Maple Ridge, B.C.
Jsssi was killed by contract killers allegedly hired by her mother Malkit Sidhu and uncle Surjit Singh Badesha because the family did not approve of her secret marriage to a poor neighbour in India.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge had ordered the surrender of Sidhu and Badesha to police in India in May 2014, believing there was enough evidence for them to face trial for the murder of Jassi Sidhu.
But last February, The B.C. Appeal Court overturned the extradition order.
In a split decision, B.C. Appeal Court Justice Ian Donald said in his ruling that India’s assurances about violence against prisoners are empty because of the country’s record of human rights abuses.
“In my view, there is a valid basis for concern that the applicants will be subjected to violence, torture and/or neglect if surrendered,” he wrote in his decision.
The decision drew outrage from all over the world.
Legal experts told the South Asian Post that the Jassi decision will figure prominently in the extradition request for Pawandeep Kaur of Toronto.
“If the Jassi case is not appealed by the crown to the Supreme Court of Canada and is left to stand, its more than likely that it will be used as a precedent by others accused of NRI-contract killings in India,” said a lawyer.