Surjit Badesha and Malkit Sidhu appear in B.C. Supreme Court in January 2012 for orchestrating the brutal killing of Ms. Sidhu’s daughter Jassi more than a decade ago after she married a man the family didn’t approve of.Sheila Allan
Two months before she was abducted and murdered in a so-called honour killing in India, a young British Columbia woman walked into the suburban Vancouver RCMP detachment near her home with a plea for help.
Jaswinder "Jassi" Sidhu walked out of the Ridge Meadows detachment about 45 minutes later with the telephone number for the Indian consulate, although police had received repeated calls in the past from her and others about her situation.
"She advised me that she had concerns for the safety of her husband, who was in India, and she also mentioned that she felt there was some harm that was going to come to him," Corporal Andy Cook testified on Wednesday at the extradition hearing of Ms. Sidhu's mother and uncle.
Cpl. Cook took a statement from the 25-year-old woman, who told him she had married against the wishes of her family.
On June 8, 2000, Ms. Sidhu's body was found in a canal near a village in Punjab, where she had gone to reunite with her husband after fleeing her family home.
Her mother, Malkit Kaur Sidhu, and her uncle, Surjit Singh Badesha, face extradition to India to face charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
Although others have testified of the increasing fear Ms. Sidhu felt for her own life after her family discovered her secret marriage, Cpl. Cook did not say she mentioned concerns for her own safety.
Friends have testified that Ms. Sidhu had been in contact with police repeatedly, and ultimately had an officer escort her to the family home to pack her things and leave.
Earlier this month, a woman who rented the basement suite from the family testified that she called police several times to report domestic disturbances upstairs at the home.
But Cpl. Cook said Ms. Sidhu told him her uncle had gone to India.
"Based on our conversation, I was able to determine that the complaint she had was the alleged action taking place in India," Cpl. Cook said. "I was unfamiliar with what to do. I had four years of experience at that time."
He consulted the senior officer in charge about how to proceed. "We provided her with telephone contacts for people in the Indian consulate," he testified. "There was not much we felt we could do in Canada at that time."
Michael Klein, the lawyer for Mr. Badesha, asked Cpl. Cook if Ms. Sidhu was under oath or otherwise "admonished" to ensure she was telling the truth. She was not.
He read out part of the statement hand-written by Ms. Sidhu that said her family had hit her and threatened her when they found out she was trying to sponsor her husband, Sukhwinder (Mithu) Sidhu, to come to Canada.
"That, on its face would suggest that this person had been threatened or assaulted?" Mr. Klein asked.
"I would agree with you, yes," Cpl. Cook said.
"Nothing further came of those allegations, then?"
"No, it did not," the officer testified.
"And, unlike the other things that were talked about, about the husband in India, these appear to have occurred in Canada, correct?"
"In reviewing it now, I would agree with you. It does appear that that occurred in Canada."
Earlier Wednesday, the court heard from the owner of a beauty school Ms. Sidhu attended in 1998, the year before she married in secret in India.
Deborah Devos testified that Ms. Sidhu confided to her that she had a secret love in India, but her uncle had arranged a marriage for her already.
"At one point, she was upset because there was an arranged marriage to a person her uncle had chosen that was quite a lot older than her, and she said 'the only reason they want me to marry him is because he has lots of money.' She did not want to marry him," she said.
Ms. Devos said Ms. Sidhu described a family life controlled by her uncle in which girls were not allowed to date or go to dances or parties.
"She was not allowed to have the type of social life that the boys were allowed to have," said Devos, who recounted for the court two occasions when an uncle she identified as Mr. Badesha came into the school and angrily grabbed Sidhu by the arm to take her home.
"He grabbed her and at one point I offered to call the police and Jassi asked me not to, that it would make things worse."
Malkit Sidhu's lawyer, David Crossin, asked Ms. Devos what Ms. Sidhu said about her mother.
"Is it fair to say that Jassi indicated to you that her mother, because of her gender, was as much a victim in that family as Jassi?" he asked.
"A mother without power. Correct?"
"A woman without power," Ms. Devos said.