The lengthy extradition process involving two Maple Ridge residents to face a charge of conspiracy to commit murder is over.
Surjit Singh Badesha and Malkit Kaur Sidhu are now in India, confirmed Angela Savard of the Department of Justice Canada.
Sidhu and Badesha were extradited on Wednesday and escorted to India by the RCMP.
“After meeting with Canadian consular officials from the High Commission in Delhi, they were turned over to the custody of the Punjab Police,” Savard added.
Sidhu and Badesha had fought a lengthy legal battle against extradition after being charged in India with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the June 2000 death of former Pitt Meadows secondary student Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu, also known as Jassi.
Surjit Singh Badesha, in his early 70s, is Jassi’s uncle and Malkit Kaur Sidhu, in her late 60s, is Jassi’s mom.
Jassi was killed in the Indian state of Punjab after she married rickshaw driver Sukhwinder ‘Mithu’ Singh Sidhu.
In December, the B.C. Court of Appeal rejected a previous request for a stay of the extradition order.
The two had until Jan. 10 to file an appeal with Supreme Court of Canada but none apparently was filed.
The summary of the Appeal Court ruling said that Badesha and Sidhu also have had the opportunity to challenge their extradition for the past seven years and their concerns about the Indian prison system “have been considered by two ministers of justice, this court and the Supreme Court of Canada.”
