ACCUSED Owed her money Rajvindar Kaur Gill (in pic), a businesswoman who dealt in gems, went missing after reaching Lahore on August 25 to attend an exhibition of diamonds The police told the Lahore HC that Rajvindar, who was in her thirties, was killed and her body dumped into a canal by a man who owed her money They have written to the Interpol to seek the arrest of the main accused, a German of Pakistani-origin, who has since fled to Germany

Lahore, January 2
A Canadian woman of Indian-origin, Rajvindar Kaur Gill, also a distant relative of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, was killed and her body dumped into a canal by a man who owed her money, the Pakistan police investigating her disappearance since last August informed a court here today.

The police told the court that they had written to the Interpol to seek the arrest of the main accused, a German of Pakistani-origin, who had since fled to Germany. The case was taken up by Sukhbir Badal with Pakistan Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif during his visit here last year after Gill's father sought his intervention.

City police chief Aslam Tareen told the court that Gill was killed soon after she arrived in the city. He said the police had arrested a suspect, Hafiz Shahzad Hussain, who had confessed that he had killed Rajvindar along with his cousin Shahid Ghazanfar. Hussain said Ghazanfar and Rajvindar had known each other for long. He had borrowed money from Rajvindar and promised to repay her when she came to Lahore.

"Ghazanfar offered me money if I helped him kill Rajvindar. I agreed. On August 25, we received her in Lahore. She stayed in a hotel for a few days (and) we picked her up on the pretext of striking a diamond deal with a local businessman," Hussain said.