Author Topic: Justice ?????..........................NashiLi_Jatti (Read 3408 times)

« **on:** May 28, 2008, 12:58:36 AM »

The Innocent Man, Freedom at Last
may 28 2008

Mithu and Jassi

Twice framed for crimes he did not commit, Sukhwinder Singh walked out of jail last Friday afternoon with gratitude in his heart, revenge on his mind and an unbearable sadness for the woman he loved.

Sukhwinder Singh â€” aka Mithu â€” is the central figure in an international saga of forbidden love that culminated in the cultural murder of Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu, a beautician from Maple Ridge, British Columbia.

Jaswinder, or Jassi, was 25-years-old when she was kidnapped, tortured and killed in the spring of 2000 after going against her family's wishes and marrying Mithu. Mithu, a poor auto-rickshaw driver, was hacked by swords and left for dead after his wife was whisked away. After several weeks in a coma, he awoke to be told that Jassi, whom he had secretly married, had been brutally slain.

Indian police had by that time arrested the hired assassins and Jassiâ€™s uncles in India, and accused her mother and another millionaire uncle in Canada of orchestrating the murder.
Just as Jassiâ€™s murder trial in India got underway in 2004, Mithu â€” a key witness to the killing â€” was charged with raping a girl from his village.

Despite protesting his innocence and insisting he was being framed to derail the murder case, Indian cops and the justice system threw him in jail pending a trial. Mithu faced 15 years in jail for a rape he did not commit. The system was convinced by the lies told by the â€œrape victim,â€ identified in court papers as Iqbal Kaur, and it moved in step with the powerful relatives of Jassi in India to deny Mithu bail.

Vancouver publisher
Harbinder Singh Sewak
Since August 2004, Mithu shared a small cell with hardened criminals in the Ludhiana Central Jail and fought for his freedom with the help of Vancouver-based publisher Harbinder Singh Sewak. Sewak set up a website called JusticeforJassi.com to bring international awareness to the case and hired lawyers in India to pursue Mithuâ€™s freedom.

Using his Asian Pacific Post and South Asian Post newspapers in Vancouver, Sewak enlisted the help of Fabian Dawson, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Vancouver Province, and journalists in India to investigate the case. The investigation showed several discrepancies in the police rape file and eventually shed light on the connections between the â€œrape victimâ€ and Jassiâ€™s relatives in India.

On the afternoon of April 26, 2008, the efforts paid off. Iqbal Kaur, 19, who accused Mithu of rape, confessed before Additional Session Judge A. S. Grewal in Ludhiana, Punjab that she had falsely named Mithu as the rapist at the behest of Jassiâ€™s uncles in India.

Her younger sister, who also identified Mithu as the rapist, told the court: "I named Mithu under the pressure of the influential uncles of Jassi. I don't know on what statement police got my signatures. Later, when we learnt Mithu had been booked and arrested, they (the uncles) threatened we would meet the same fate as Jassi if we changed our story," she told the judge.
Iqbal said she was raped on the night of August 14, 2004 at her home.

But she does not know the assailant and was coerced to name Mithu as the rapist. â€œThis is a tragedy beyond imagination,â€ said Sewak in Vancouver. â€œI am glad to have been able to play a role to correct this miscarriage of justice . . . I hope Mithu can now rebuild his life.â€

Charanjit Singh Bakshi, one of Mithuâ€™s lawyers congratulated the work done by the Asian Pacific Post and the South Asian Post to secure the release of an innocent man. â€œJustice has indeed been dispensed despite our serious apprehensions. We must appreciate the crusading journalistic efforts in this regard,â€ he said.

Bikram Jit Singh Sidhu, another of Mithuâ€™s lawyers said his clientâ€™s release represented a red letter day for the justice system in India. "But who is going to return the three years of his life in the jail?,â€ he asked.

Ludhiana Central jail is a sprawling penal colony surrounded by high brick walls and manned by 165 guards. Like many of India's prisons, it dates back to the era of British colonial rule, with thousands of prisoners kept in crumbling facilities. The jail, originally built for about 500 inmates, currently houses over 2,600 convicts and accused persons awaiting trial. Jupinderjit Singh, a correspondent with The Tribune in India, who has been following the case for the last eight years, wrote that Mithu would not have been released if not for Sewakâ€™s efforts.

â€œCanadian residents were so anguished at the murder of Jassi and the arrest of Mithu that thousands of them supported a media campaign and a website â€“ JusticeforJassi.com
floated by the Asian Pacific Post and the South Asian Post,â€ said journalist Singh. Emerging from the prison he has called home for the last 44 months, Mithu expressed his gratitude to the thousands of people who have written to support him on JusticeforJassi.com

â€œI canâ€™t say enough about what you have done for me,â€ he said, referring to Sewakâ€™s tireless efforts. â€œI fought to live with my love . . . I fought death after being attacked . . . I have fought the police, the courts and the false accusers. But my struggle will only end when the people responsible for Jassiâ€™s murder are extradited to India and pay for the crime. â€œWhat crime did I commit other than loving Jassi?â€This was the second time Mithu was jailed on false charges.

After Jassiâ€™s family in B.C. found out that she had secretly married Mithu, they lodged a police report claiming that he had forced the marriage at gunpoint. Forced marriages are illegal in India. Mithu was arrested and thrown in jail. Jassi escaped from her family in Maple Ridge and fled to India to secure his release.

Shortly after, Jassi's body was found in a canal with its throat slit. Indian police alleged that family members, including her mother and uncle in B.C., paid thugs up to $50,000 for the hit. The police in court papers allege that the order to kill â€œcame from Canadaâ€ after Jassi pleaded for her life over the phone from an abandoned farmhouse.

They have charged Jassi's mother, Malkiat Kaur, and uncle, Surjit Singh Badesha, both of the Metro Vancouver suburb of Maple Ridge, with conspiracy to commit murder. The wealthy Fraser Valley farming family has denied any involvement in the incident. Indian police have revised their extradition requests several times, but the duo remains free in Canada.
The RCMP will only say that the file remains open.

Last February, a court in India upheld the life sentences given to four men charged in connection with Jassiâ€™s murder. Three others who were sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the case were acquitted.

The lie that sent an innocent man to jail
Timeline of a tragedy

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Author Topic: Justice ?????..........................NashiLi_Jatti (Read 3408 times)

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Justice ?????..........................NashiLi_Jatti

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