CBI court sends Punjab minister Bibi Jagir Kaur to jail for daughter's murder

Chandigarh, Mar.30 (ANI): A special CBI court in Patiala on Friday found Punjab minister and former Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaur guilty of forcing her daughter, Harpreet Kaur, to undergo an abortion and sentenced her to five years rigorous imprisonment.

The court also charged her with abduction and criminal conspiracy in the murder case. She was given three years and a year's imprisonment respectively on these two counts. The court said the sentence would run concurrently.

Harpreet Kaur had died under mysterious circumstances in April 2000.

The case has seen several witnesses turning hostile. Even the complainant Kamaljit Singh turned hostile, only to re-affirm the charges later.

While Harpreet's cremation happened hurriedly, a few days after her death, Kamaljit, a resident of Begowal, which is the ancestral village of Bibi Jagir Kaur, had claimed that he was Harpreet's husband and the father of Harpreet's still-born child.

When the police refused to register a complaint in this regard on April 27, 2000, Kamaljit approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court. On June 9, 2000, the High Court directed the CBI to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

After conducting the probe, on October 3, 2000, the CBI registered a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code against Bibi Jagir Kaur, who was the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee President at that time. (ANI)