Twenty-two days after Aikom's murder came to light, the victim’s mother-in-law, Jaswinder Kaur, surrendered herself in the office of the Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police at the District Police Headquarters in Sector 76 here this afternoon.
Jaswinder Kaur, mother of prime accused Seerat Kaur and co-accused in the murder case, reached SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal’s office around 12.30 pm along with her counsel and surrendered before him. Confirming the development, the SSP said Jaswinder Kaur was being questioned by the police.
“We are yet to make her arrest as we want to verify several things before taking any step in this direction,” said Chahal.
The SSP said Jaswinder Kaur’s interrogation was on by members of a special investigating team, formed by the Mohali police to investigate the crime.
Seerat Kaur’s brother Vinay Partap Singh had joined the police investigation on April 3. After his interrogation, the police had allowed Vinay Partap to go the next day.
The SSP said prima facie, he seemed to be innocent.
Contrary to the claims of Aikom’s family members that Vinay Partap and Seerat had started meeting in the recent past, the SSP said no such thing came out during the police investigation. “They were not even on talking terms. We have even checked the call details of the brother-sister duo and found nothing suspicious so far. So we let him (Vinay) go,” said the SSP.
On the other hand, Seerat’s Patiala-based uncle, Prof Mohinder Pal Singh, claimed that during his recent meeting with Seerat in custody, she told him that Vinay Partap and Jagat were involved in the crime.
However, the Mohali police are yet to identify Jagat and ascertain his role in the case.
“I am doubtful about the existence of any such person (Jagat),” said the SSP, adding that there seemed to be no second person involved in the case.
Seerat was produced before a local court on Monday after the culmination of her 14-day remand in judicial custody. The court directed that there was no need for Seerat's physical presence in the court; so the next court proceedings in the case could be done through video-conferencing. Seerat was lodged at the Nabha jail. The next hearing in the case is slated for April 24.
The SSP said prima facie Jaswinder Kaur (80), too, seemed to have no role in the crime. “She told us that she was at the MLA Hostel in Chandigarh at the time of the incident. We are in process of verifying her statement. We haven't arrested her,” said SSP Chahal.
The Mohali police have finally woken up to probe the alleged incident of burning of blood-stained clothes and sleepers (which Seerat had left in a bag at a local gurdwara on March 19) by an ASI-rank policeman. The SSP marked an inquiry into the matter to SP (D) JS Teja. “I took suo motu notice of reports published in a section of the media and asked the SP (D) to probe the matter properly,” said the SSP.
