By Mata Press Service

In Lalton village, outside the industrial city of Ludhiana in Punjab, Malkiat Singh Bhandol’s family is regarded as heroes. Three decades ago, the area also known as the Land of the Grewals, was being terrorized by a mob reportedly run by a local muscleman named Teja Singh. Teja and his five brothers, who were well connected allegedly ran extortion rackets, looted liquor stores and killed indiscriminately, those who ran afoul of them.

That was until March 25, 1974. On that day, Indian police say Malkiat Singh, who was a teenager, and his three uncles confronted Teja in the village. The three uncles claimed that Teja and his goons had killed their fourth brother Jagmail Singh in full public view, put his body in a sack and took it away on a bicycle. The body was never recovered. The incident occurred four years earlier. Teja was arrested but acquitted of the crime.

But revenge continued to simmer in Bhandol’s family and the confrontation with Teja led to violence. Teja was chased and killed. Others were shot and injured. Three days later Teja’s body was found in a canal. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds. His head, neck, arms and legs had been severed following death.

Malkiat and his three uncles were arrested shortly after Teja’s body was found.

They were convicted a year later for the murder. When he was released on bail pending an appeal in 1978, Malkiat fled to Winnipeg, Canada, got married, had two children and obtained his citizenship.

After a divorce, Malkiat remarried and moved his family to Osoyoos B.C. where he operated the SP Farm & Fruit Market at 6218 on Highway 97. He distanced himself from his Indian roots and led a model life while quietly fighting attempts by Indian authorities to get him back to a Punjab court.

Last month, 32 years after the murder, the B.C. Appeals Court ordered him returned to India to face a justice system that he says has wrongfully pinned the murder on him and his family. Malkiat Singh’s journey to Osoyoos, B.C. took him through Germany, the Netherlands and a hastily arranged marriage.

Four years after being convicted of the murder of Teja Singh, Malkiat with the help of his father obtained bail while appealing the life sentence to an Indian High Court. It was around this time he obtained a passport and slipped out of India for Germany. He entered Canada at Winnipeg, Manitoba, on the 7th of September, 1980 with visitor status which was to expire on the 21st of November, 1980. One day before the expiry, Malkiat married a Canadian citizen who quickly submitted an application to sponsor him for permanent residency or landed immigrant status.

After the application was filed, Malkiat travelled to The Netherlands to complete outside of Canada his documentation for status in Canada. In his application Malkiat said “no” to the question “have you... been convicted of any crime or offence?”

Malkiat came back to Winnipeg in February 1981 on another visitor visa. When his application to extend his visitor visa was denied, Malkiat was arrested, fingerprinted, fined $100 and ordered deported back to India. Malkiat claims he returned to India twice after jumping bail, but it is unclear if he went back to India after being ordered deported. On June 2, 1982, Immigration Canada issued a visa to Malkiat saying he could come to Canada as he was married to a Canadian citizen.

The following month, he flew to Toronto and got his landed status. Less than a year later he divorced his Canadian wife, through whom he got his landed status and then applied to sponsor his “fiancée” from India.

Bhandol moved his young family to Osoyoos to lead what the courts have determined was “a model life”.

Locals in the town well known for its fruits and lake described the Bhandols as upstanding citizens.

“(The Bhandols) are an absolutely marvellous family and it’s tragic what has happened to them,” Russ Chamberlain, Malkiat’s lawyer told local media. Life was quiet, good and prosperous. Malkiat’s kids went to the local schools while his stature grew in the local Sikh community with his charitable acts at the Osoyoos Gurdwara. The Bhandols’ home, fruit stand, 17-acre mixed fruit orchard and two-acre pond are now worth some $2.09 million, said the local paper. According to the RCMP, Malkiat Singh Bhandol was picked up on January 14, 2004 during a roadside check on Highway 97 in the Osoyoos area by chance.

 “Bhandol held a B.C. driver’s licence showing a Surrey address, but had been making a living as a fruit grower in the Okanagan for many years, leading a quiet life with his wife and two children”, the RCMP said.

Following his 2004 arrest, the fugitive was released on bail of nearly $2 million, put up by about 13 people.

The three men with flowing white beards speak bitterly in unison about the 20 years they spent in Indian jails for the murder of Teja Singh.

“He had killed our fourth brother,” Malkiat’s maternal uncles Kapoor Singh, Sarwan Singh and Bhajan Singh told the Asian Pacific Post at their home in Lalton village, Punjab. All three are in their early 80s. Bhajan Singh walks with the help of a stick while the other two can see only with thick glasses. “He deserved to die as he had brutally killed our brother Jagmail Singh in full public view, put his body in a sack and taken it away on his cycle in 1970. The body was never recovered.”

Though the village residents hold the trio in high esteem for the murder of Teja Singh, the three brothers denied they had killed him. They claim that Teja Singh had looted a liquor vendor who sent his staff to kill him.

“Malkiat Singh was about 16 when the murder took place. He was not involved and was wrongly booked. He fled when he was 20. We didn’t hear anything about him after that. He never called us also.” They stressed that Malkiat was a minor at that time and had nothing to do with the murder. “The police suspected us and eventually booked us. We were convicted even though the body was never recovered,” they claimed. But the uncles are not too impressed with their fugitive nephew who made good his escape until now. “We are extremely bitter at his attitude and behaviour towards us. At every possibility, we tried to convince the police and the court about his innocence. However, when he eventually fled and earned enough money in Canada, he never helped our families or arranged better lawyers for us.” They however were amazed that the long arm of the law could still catch up with Malkiat after so many years.

When Teja Singh’s family heard about Malkiat getting Canadian citizenship, they wrote a letter of complaint alleging that he had lied about his criminal background.

They said he was a wanted killer. Efforts were then initiated to see if Malkiat’s citizenship should be revoked.

In an unprecedented move, while Malkiat remained free in Osoyoos, a Canadian judge Frederick E. Gibson, accompanied by RCMP members held the first ever court outside Canada.

The so called Rogatory Commission in India recorded evidence of 21 witnesses in the citizen revocation matter. The Federal Court of Canada conducted a four-day trial in Ludhiana, during which time they examined witnesses in the original murder trial.

The court concluded that Malkiat had lied in his application for Canadian status.

It was only after this that he was arrested in Osoyoos.

The arrest triggered howls of outrage by a local MP who was critical of the way the case was handled.

“Why in God’s name is someone convicted of murder not apprehended?” asked then MP Jim Gouk, who represented the Kootenay-Boundary-Okanagan riding. “They must have known where to find this guy.”

As the extradition proceedings wound through the court system, Malkiat maintained his innocence.

 One of the most dramatic twists in the case came when three witnesses, including a co-accused, filed affidavits saying that Malkiat was in a village 25 miles from the scene on the day of the murder. 

One of them Charanjit Kaur, a victim and an eyewitness from the original murder trial, deposed that she was forced by Indian police to provide false evidence against Malkiat.

She stated that she did not know Malkiat at the time of the incident, nor was he present at the time of the death of Teja Singh.

Last month the British Columbia Court of Appeals ordered Malkiat deported despite the new evidence and arguments that he was only a teen at the time of the murder and had already served four years of the sentence.

The court ruled that the Canadian justice minister acted reasonably in ordering Malkiat’s extradition, and knew he had made a “positive contribution as a citizen” during the years he lived in Canada. Appeals court orders can be challenged to Canada’s Supreme Court, but Malkiat, according to his lawyer is tired of fighting his case in Canada.

At Press time, Ludhiana police officers Harish Kumar and Sandeep Kumar Sharma were making preparations to come to British Columbia to escort Malkiat back to India.

Ludhiana Senior Supt. R K Jaiswal said Malkiat would face trial on additional charges of jumping bail and hiding his criminal background.

The case regarding his escape from India has been reopened. Jaiswal said a police team has been constituted to handle the Malkiat matter as per orders from the Indian Government.

The fugitive farmer, who is being detained pending his trip back to India, has hired a lawyer in India to introduce new evidence to prove his innocence.

Malkiat, his lawyer said, is determined to fight for his freedom in India.