The dead body of a pregnant Australian woman has been found who was allegedly kidnapped on 14th March while talking on the phone with her husband who is now under investigation.
Ravneet Kaur’s body was pulled from a canal near Patiala (Punjab) on Monday, 11 days after the Gold Coast nurse went missing from her parent’s village, Bagge Ke Pippal in Ferozepur district where she arrived on 3rd March with her four-year-old daughter.
“We have nominated her husband in the FIR (First Information Report) for conspiracy and murder,” said Mohit Dhawan, the police officer investigating the case.
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The police are alleging that Ms Kaur’s husband of over six years, Jaspreet Singh hatched the conspiracy to murder her.
“He has an extramarital affair with a woman living in the Gold Coast. That woman travelled to India and along with her sister, kidnapped Ravneet when she was talking to her husband through a video call. The husband asked her to step out of the house and show her around the village,” Mr Dhawan told SBS Punjabi.
He said Ms Kaur was kidnapped in a car and was allegedly sedated and killed before her body was dumped in a canal nearly 200 kilometers away in Patiala district.
However, Jaspreet Singh, Ms Kaur's husband, denies the allegations.
"I don't know what the basis of all these allegations is," Mr Singh told SBS Punjabi.
“I can’t say anything. I will have to go to India and find out what happened. I have no role in this whatsoever,” he said.
A woman has been arrested in connection with the crime while another woman, a resident of the Gold Coast, returned to Australia the next day. Mr Dhawan says the Gold Coast woman has also been named as an accused in the case.
Ravneet Kaur had travelled to India on 27th February along with her daughter. She was reported missing by her family on 14th March. Though police registered a case of kidnapping, they initially did not find any clue pointing towards a forcible kidnapping.
Mr Dhawan says this was a clear indication that she had gone with someone known to her.
“We will seek her husband’s extradition from Australia so that he can be questioned here and made to face the law,” Mr Dhawan said.
He said it wasn’t clear how she was murdered and would wait for an autopsy report to confirm the cause of death.
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