Rupinder Kaur, the 71-year-old NRI, was bludgeoned to death using a baseball bat, the police found out. The accused was identified as one Sukhjit Singh, a typist in the Ludhiana district court, who was offered a hefty sum to commit the murder by one Charanjit Singh.
75-year-old Charanjit Singh and Rupinder Kaur were to tie the knot but Charanjit had a change of heart. When he told Rupinder, she didn't take it well and reportedly threatened to implicate him in a case. This is said to be the motive for the crime as the UK-based septuagenarian reportedly offered Sukhjit Singh Rs 50 lakh in return for murdering the woman. Charanjit also offered to help Sukhjit start a new life in the UK, news reports said.
Rupinder was beaten to death on July 12 after Sukhjit lured her to India with promises of marriage, Times of India (TOI) said in a report. Then he started a fire within his residence using a large quantity of coal that he had procured beforehand. The woman's body was thrown into this fire, which remained active for two to three days. According to the daily, whatever remained of her bones was collected in sacks by the man who threw it in a water channel. Her phone was also shattered and disposed of in the water body by the accused.
Sukhjit Singh's room needed repair as the burning of coal had damaged the interiors. It needed fresh tiles and labourers who arrived to lay them grew suspicious of the black-coated room, the TOI report quoted the cops as saying. The entire village already knew about the missing NRI woman and the police were soon alerted.
Charanjit Singh remains in the UK, the Punjab Police confirmed. While he had transferred money to Sukhjit on multiple occasions, it was not established how much of the promised Rs 50 lakh was handed over to him.