Eleven years after a young B.C. woman's throat was slit in a suspected honour killing in India, her mother and uncle face extradition from Canada – but experts say the process promises to be drawn out and complex.
Jaswinder Sidhu, a 25-year-old Maple Ridge resident, was murdered in Punjab in June 2000 by a gang of men after eloping with a rickshaw driver against her family's wishes.
Seven men have been convicted in the brutal attack, three of whom were cleared on appeal. But Indian authorities believe the murder may have been masterminded overseas.
On Friday, B.C. Mounties announced the victim's 63-year-old mother, Malkit Kaur Sidhu, and 67-year-old uncle, Surjit Singh Badesha, had been arrested under the Extradition Act.
The pair is due to appear in court Wednesday, where they are expected to apply for bail.
Fabian Dawson, a longtime case observer who authored the book "Justice for Jassi," says he anticipates the extradition process will take a minimum of five years to complete.
"If the family decides to fight this, and fight this all the way, this could end up at the Supreme Court of Canada," said Dawson, the deputy editor of The Province newspaper.
Much of the evidence that will be presented was collected by the Indian Police Service, and a Canadian judge will need to be convinced a solid case has been assembled before sending two citizens away, he added.
In his book, Dawson claims that Sidhu's prosperous family was angry that she had married her lower-class husband, Sukwinder Singh Sidhu, also known as Mithu, whom she met on a matchmaking trip to India.
"It was almost love at first sight. She approached him and they hit it off," Dawson says.
The pair married in secret. When her family learned of the wedding, Dawson says they forced her to file a fake affidavit alleging she had married at gunpoint. Mithu was arrested and jailed.
She fled Canada to be with him in April 2000, two months before the couple was attacked. Mithu was stabbed several times but managed to survive the attack.
Dawson told CTV News he has spoken to the widower, who is encouraged by the recent arrests.
"He's overwhelmed. He's gone through a lot physically and emotionally, and he's hoping that this is the beginning of something that will bring some justice to him," he said.
The arrests came shortly after the release of Dawson's book, which spurred a website also called "Justice for Jassi" that collected almost 6,000 signatures demanding the RCMP lay charges in the case.
Dawson says it's unclear why it took almost 12 years for the arrests.
With files from CTV.ca
