The path is now clear for two Maple Ridge residents to be extradited to India to face a conspiracy to commit murder charge, dating back to 2000.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said Tuesday that Canada is now in a position to fulfill the extradition request from India for Surjit Singh Badesha and Malkit Kaur Sidhu.
They had until Jan. 10 to file an appeal with Supreme Court of Canada but none apparently was filed.
“Appropriate arrangements will be made for their safe transfer to India,” said Robin Bracham, with the Department of Justice. She couldn’t comment further because it’s now before the courts in India.
Sidhu and Badesha are facing 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 decision came after a three-day hearing on Nov. 5 to 7.
Lawyers filed their applications in B.C. Court of Appeal in October 2017, claiming an abuse of process and stating that Canada’s justice minister, on Sept. 28, 2017, refused to accept the applicant’s submissions, didn’t follow the principles of natural justice and violated the pair’s Charter rights during a previous extradition process.
That earlier extradition was stayed in September 2017 after one of the lawyers filed an appeal, while Sidhu and Badesha were in custody in Toronto, on their way to India to face trial.
According to Appeal Court documents, Sidhu and Badesha had made additional submissions in the weeks before the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of extradition in September 2017.
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.
Appeal Court Justices Bauman, Stromberg-Stein and Butler also decided that it was reasonable for the justice minister to surrender the pair to Indian authorities.
