Blood and honour: When 'parent' turns into monstrous killer

As a shocked nation continues to be transfixed by the story of how Indrani Mukerjea allegedly killed her daughter, the riveting filmlike account brings back memories of similar stories played out in Punjab not so long ago.
In these cases of murders most foul, where mothers, have been either convicted or charged with killing their daughters, investigations have revealed “honour” as the most common motive.The Jassi Sidhu murder case shocked the state in 2000 when a 24-year-old wealthy NRI girl Jaswinder (Jassi) was killed near Ludhiana by men hired by her mother Malkit Kaur and uncle Surjit Singh Badesha in Canada. She was killed just because she had dared to fall in love with a kabbadi player-turned auto driver Sukhvinder (Mithu) Sidhu during one of her trips to India in 1994. In a subsequent trip in 1999, she secretly married Mithu. Working at a beauty parlour in Canada, Jassi led a tumultuous life after her “affair” and secret marriage came to light at home. Her mother would beat her up and stopped giving her food. She finally approached the police when her uncle made arrangements to marry her to a 60 year-old man. She came to India in May 2000 to be with Mithu.