71-year-old US woman, who came to marry in India, burned to death: What we know

She came to Punjab in pursuit of love, but what awaited her was betrayal of the cruellest kind.

Rupinder Kaur Pandher, a 71-year-old US citizen of Indian origin, believed she had found a partner in a UK-based NRI she met online. Trusting his promises of marriage, she flew down to India this summer. But within weeks, her dream turned into a nightmare, and she was murdered and burnt alive.

Police now say the very man she thought she would marry plotted her killing, and lured his acquaintance to carry out the brutal crime.

Here’s what we know about the case so far.

The duo met on a matrimonial site

According to The New Indian Express, Rupinder’s elder sister Kamal Khairah shared that her younger sister, who was divorced, came across a 75-year-old man, Charanjit Singh Grewal, on a matrimonial website in May last year. Grewal, too, claimed to be divorced.

Grewal had two daughters, a son, and even grandchildren. By July last year, he had travelled to the US to meet Rupinder.

“My sister brought him to meet me in Houston, as she lived in Seattle,” Kamal recalled. “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.”

Time flew, and by later that year, in October, Rupinder visited India while Grewal came from the UK. That was when he introduced her to his village. She returned to the US soon after.

In June, Rupinder accepted Grewal’s invitation to travel back to India, thinking they would finally tie the knot.

During this visit, she stayed at the house of Sukhjit Singh, also known as Sonu, a court typist and Grewal’s acquaintance for years.

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The gruesome murder

The chain of betrayal soon turned deadly.

Police said Grewal was growing increasingly reluctant to keep his promises. That’s when, according to Inspector Satinder Singh, Grewal roped in his Sukhjit and allegedly asked him to “help” Rupinder with her property dispute, and convinced her to transfer her power of attorney into his name.

“Soon, Rupinder transferred her power of attorney for the court case to Sukhjit and also started living with him. In the meantime, she was also pressuring Charanjit to marry her as promised, but he was reluctant and wanted to get rid of her,” the inspector was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

By then, Rupinder was also moving large sums of money into Sukhjit’s account, believing it would cover wedding and legal expenses.

Police allege that he and Charanjit split the funds, all while stringing her along with empty promises of marriage and legal help.

As Rupinder pressed him for marriage, investigators say he feared she might take legal action for cheating, or worse. Eventually, investigators say, Charanjit asked Sukhjit to kill Rupinder.

“Charanjit told Sukhjit that Rupinder would definitely file a rape and cheating case against both of them, so it was better to eliminate her. He told Sukhjit to kill Rupinder and promised to pay him Rs 50 lakh for the job. He also promised Sukhjit that he would call him to the UK once the task was done,” Inspector Singh said.

On July 12 this year, Sukhjit allegedly carried out the plan. Police said he beat Rupinder to death with baseball bats inside his house in Kila Raipur. To destroy evidence, he burnt her body on a coal fire in his storeroom, packed the charred remains into four bags, and dumped them in a drain in Ghungrana village.

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False complaint, hunt for Grewal

Rupinder’s family sensed something was wrong. Her sister noticed her phone was switched off by July 24, and on July 28, she raised the alarm with the US embassy in New Delhi. It was only after embassy intervention that local police launched a deeper probe.

Meanwhile, Sukhjit himself walked into the Dehlon police station and filed a missing person complaint on August 18, claiming that Rupinder was depressed, and had left for Delhi airport on July 18 “to attend a wedding in Canada,” and never returned. He insisted her phone had been unreachable ever since.

However, the police investigation soon revealed the truth and nabbed Sukhjit.

Inspector Singh said that he confessed to the crime, and based on this, they recovered the charred remains and the victim’s broken iPhone from the drain. They also revealed that despite the promise, the Rs 50 lakh payment was never made to him by Grewal.

An FIR has now been filed naming Grewal, who is absconding, as the key suspect in the case and efforts are on to bring him to justice.

“This case is not just a murder but a horrifying betrayal of trust and human decency,” Assistant Commissioner of police (ACP) Harjinder Singh Gill said.

With input from agencies