CHANDIGARH: A 69-year-old Indian-origin US citizen, Rupinder Kaur Pandher, was allegedly murdered in Kila Raipur village near Ludhiana after traveling from Seattle to Punjab in July to marry a 75-year-old UK-based Non-Resident Indian (NRI), Charanjit Singh Grewal.
According to police, Grewal lured her to India under the pretext of marriage and then orchestrated her brutal murder through a contract killer.
The Punjab Police have identified the main suspect as Sukhjeet Singh alias Sonu, who has allegedly confessed to killing Rupinder on the night of July 12–13, acting on instructions from Grewal. Investigators claim that financial gain was the primary motive for the murder.
Police sources revealed that Charanjit Singh Grewal, originally from Mehma Singh Wala village, now residing in the United Kingdom, had allegedly plotted the murder and promised Rs 50 lakh to Sonu to carry out the killing.
In a gruesome attempt to destroy evidence, Sonu reportedly burned Rupinder’s body with diesel in a storeroom at his residence, cooled the remains with water, and disposed of the ashes in a nearby drain in Lehra village. The police have since recovered partial skeletal remains and sent them for forensic analysis.
While Grewal has been named as the prime suspect, efforts are ongoing to gather further evidence and secure his arrest. His brother and other associates have also been named in the FIR and are currently absconding.
The case came to light when Rupinder’s sister, Kamal Kaur Khaizah, who resides in the US, contacted the US Embassy in India on July 28 after failing to reach her sister for four consecutive days. Rupinder's phone had been switched off shortly after she traveled to Kila Raipur on Grewal’s invitation. Following Kamal’s persistent efforts, the US Embassy took up the matter with the Punjab Police.
It was only last week that the family received a call from a friend who informed them of Rupinder’s suspected murder and Sonu’s arrest, which proved to be the breakthrough in the case.
Speaking to this newspaper over the phone from the US, Rupinder’s elder sister Kamal Khairah said that her younger sister, who was divorced, came in contact with Grewal—also divorced, as he claimed—through a matrimonial site in May last year. Grewal has two daughters, a son, and grandchildren. He travelled to the US in the first week of July last year.
“My sister brought him to meet me in Houston, as she lived in Seattle,” Kamal said. “I asked him why he didn’t try to find a woman to marry in the UK or India instead of the US, but he had no answer. At that time, he also hadn’t informed his family about my sister.”
Kamal added that in October last year, her sister went to India from the US while Grewal travelled from the UK. He took her to his village, where she was allegedly mistreated. In May this year, she returned to the US, and Grewal also came from the UK to attend a wedding.
“On June 18 this year, my sister went back to India after he told her he would marry her. She stayed with two people known to Grewal and, during her earlier visit, had transferred 36,500 US dollars to India,” Kamal claimed.
A case has been registered, and investigations are ongoing.
Assistant commissioner of police Harjinder Singh Gill said that the main suspect, Sukhjeet Singh, alias Sonu, who is from Malha Patti in Kila Raipur, has confessed. He set the body ablaze in a storeroom of his house on the intervening night of July 12 and 13. `` The remand of Sonu was of four days which ended today and again we produced him in court, and three days more remand has been taken,’’ he said.