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Mother dies to save infants’ honour Jalandhar, May 4 In a suicide note, Jaspreet (not her real name) alleged that her father’s sister Davinder Kaur, her husband Gurmej Singh (a Head Constable with the Punjab Police) and their son Amritpal had been blackmailing her using an MMS clip. She has alleged in the suicide note that she was being sexually abused by her uncle (Gurmej Singh) since the age of nine. They told her to bequeath her entire property to them, or they would make public the MMS depicting an indecent assault on her by Gumej. She has further written that she was taking the extreme step fearing that her children would have to live a life full of humiliation, if that MMS was made public by the accused. For the past one year, Jaspreet had been trying to expose the accused. She approached senior police officials in Jalandhar and Pathankot to help her bring the culprits to book and get back 40 acres of the family land. In a statement given to the Pathankot police earlier this year, Jaspreet had said that she was just nine when her father became mentally ill after the death of her grandfather in 2001. After that, Davinder Kaur, Gurmej and Amritpal came to live in their house. They also started looking after the family’s 40 acres of land that belonged to her grandmother, her father, her uncle (chacha) and her aunt (Davinder). With an intention to claim the entire property, her uncle threw her mother out of the house in 2005 and started abusing her (Jaspreet) sexually. He made an MMS that was later used to blackmail her and her grandmother to claim their share of 20 acres. As Jaspreet’s uncle (Davinder’s brother) had also committed suicide in 1987 and his share in the land was lying unclaimed, the family wanted to get the entire 40 acres. Jaspreet also alleged that Gurmej forced her to undergo abortion several times at a private hospital in Pathankot under his wife’s name.“Besides getting the property, he wanted her to maintain sexual relations with him. Although, he got her married to Harmeet Singh of Gurdaspur in 2008, he kept following her even there. He would bring her back for months and abuse her. Once, her in-laws showed reluctance in letting her go with him. Enraged, Gurmej showed the controversial MMS to her father-in-law following which she was thrown out of her in-laws’ house,” said Harvinder Singh, Jaspreet’s second husband. Jaspreet and Harmeet got divorced in 2011. Jaspreet was then married to Harvinder Singh, a private contractor. Even after Jaspreet’s second marriage, Gurmej wanted her to maintain sexual relations with him. Whenever Jaspreet tried to say no to Gurmej, he would threatens her of making her MMS public by putting it on the internet, Harvinder alleged. “She made a suicide attempt in 2006, but survived. After the birth of our children, she was under extreme pressure as she felt her children will have to live a life of humiliation,” Harvinder said. Davinder Kaur, who is in police custody at present, has refuted all these allegations. She said Jaspreet was misguided by her husband. “The girl was highly qualified. She had done MA, MPhil as a regular student from Guru Nanak Dev University. For doing her BEd, she stayed in a hostel for one year at Basoli, near Kathua, in Jammu and Kashmir. All these years, including her earlier marriage days, she never alleged sexual abuse or anything like that. Why the issue has been raised after this marriage?” Davinder Kaur said. She said Harvinder’s former wife had lodged an FIR against him in 2005, alleging harassment for dowry. She said six vigilance inquiries were conducted against her husband Gurmej following Jaspreet’s allegations that he owned assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Gurmej, however, got clean chit in all six inquiries, she said. The police have now announced to conduct a high-level inquiry into the case. Jaspreet was cremated after a post-mortem was conducted at the Civil Hospital on Sunday. Her suicide note has been sent for forensic analysis. ‘Honour suicide’ * The woman who committed suicide was being allegedly sexually abused by the husband of her father’s sister since the age of nine * The accused, his wife and son threatened to make public an MMS of a sexual assault on her, if she did not allow them to take over the family property * The woman (30) took the extreme step as she did not want her eight-month-old twins to live a life of humiliation in case her MMS was made public by the accused
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