Truemors
Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor
Certainly a cautious Father protecting either his investment or daughter in what amounts to a financial scam, rampant in India and Canada in which payment up front in the form of a dowry in order to get his daughter married off in Canada, resulting in the dowry amounting sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars demanded by her accused (Indian Police) Canadian Huband and relative, resulting in some cases the bride being abused or murdered soon after by the husband and the relatives.
Though this accused man's inlaws have not been implicated, historically Indian Police have witnessed in laws in India, whose involvement in such cases often which fatal results.
Though I strongly believe when in Rome.... though when this this antiquated custom of India's Dowry Customs rears it's ugly head in Canada, this has no place in our modern society where women are basically treated as chattel. Marriage with a Dowry attached in any culture seems to have nothing to do with Love and more to do with Money for parasitic inlaws and husbands, bent on making living on the backs of others desperately seeking to marry off their daughters in a cultural idealogy in which arcahic societies like Canada and Western Society witnessed in the early 20 century saw unmarried women labelled as old maids at the ripe old age of 25 years old making them social pariahs in society amongst their peers. Thank god the womens movement in 1970's changed all that, for the most part.
Paying someone to marry your pride and joy has no place in Canada or anywhere in the world, especially in cases where death is threatened to a woman in what amounts to a Canadian Passport in exchange for cash from the Parasites of Society. It is high time Canadian Bureaucrats fianlly admitted this woman to Canada on her own merit, despite her accused Husband's chagrin of losing out to what amounts to a small fortune from this womans family. Let's hope someone in Canada will meet this woman and cherish her as her family does back in India.
As for the Parasites who prey on (india) women's cultural beliefs that they are worthless unless married, let's hope Canada gets some backbone and takes out Parasites who prey on these families belief out of the equation permanently in protecting other women from these criminal entities. It pisses me off when Men have more merit in coming to this country over women, thanks to our Canadian Governments Immigration policies, women are just as valued in our society. But seem to be placed on the wayside.
My Final Thought
Will Canadian Politicians do anything to stop this? implementing stringent background checks and laws in place to protect the innocent women from harm or worse?
Will Politicians allow women immigration status equal to men when coming to this country?
Of course not, Politicians know full well which side of their Voters Ballot is curried on.
Surrey man among four arrested in alleged dowry conspiracy.
Indian police have arrested four men, including one from British Columbia, and charged them with conspiracy to murder the father of a young bride in Ludhiana, India.
They have also issued arrest warrants for the woman's husband and his cousin, who live in Surrey.
Police charges indicate the husband and his cousin hired a group of contract killers for 120,000 rupees (about $3,000 Cdn) after the father of the bride could not raise the dowry for his daughter.
According to police, the bride, Pawanjot Kaur, who came to Canada to look for her husband but without the $75,000 dowry, is living with her grandfather in Edmonton. The couple was married in 2004 and but the bride was told that she could not come to Canada until the dowry was settled.
Dowries -- normally in cash, jewelry or land -- are gifts a woman brings to her husband in marriage. It is an ancestral custom officially abolished in India but one that prevails in practice and is considered a sacred duty of the father.
While there is no suggestion of the involvement of the in-laws in this case, on average, Indian police record one case an hour of brides being ill-treated violently by their in-laws for failure to deliver dowry.
The practice of giving dowry, widely acknowledged as a social evil in India, led to the murder or suicide of 7,618 women in India last year, according to official statistics.
Court papers and police reports in the alleged dowry-related murder conspiracy identify the four arrested men as Ramandeep Singh, alias Rimpy, of Surrey, and three alleged contract killers -- Sunil Kumar, alias Moni, Kulwant Singh, alias Kanta, and Jaskaran Singh, alias Jassi.
Police say they arrested the four last Thursday night while they were on their way to Mundiya village outside the industrial city of Ludhiana, where the bride's family lived.
Police seized a car, two guns, ammunition, Canadian, U.S. and Indian currency and a photo of the bride from the suspects.
Two others who were in the car and believed to be part of the plot escaped.
Police are searching for them in the district of Ganganagar, where the alleged contract killers lived.
Also charged with conspiracy to kill under the Indian penal code are two men: Pawanjot Kaur's husband, Veerharinder Singh, a Surrey businessman, and his cousin, Sukhvir Singh, alias Sukhi.
Indian police said they plan to seek the extradition of the two.
"The conspiracy to kill was allegedly hatched in Canada about two months ago," Ludhiana senior superintendent of police R.K. Jaiswal told CanWest News Service.
Jaiswal said that police were tipped off to the plot by a man who overheard the four suspects allegedly planning the murder at a roadside restaurant.
"The accused were allegedly planning their operation sitting in a Dhaba [roadside restaurant], when a local informed us about the plot. We laid a trap and arrested the gang members."
"The suspects are accused of planning to kill Pawanjot's father, Ranphul Singh," alleged Jaiswal.
Jaiswal said preliminary investigations suggest Ramandeep Singh was sent from Surrey to oversee the operation after the hired killers in India failed in an earlier attempt. Police tracked 60,000 rupees sent from Surrey to the hired hit men via a Western Union money transfer two months ago, he said. "Ramandeep had a return ticket to Canada dated Jan. 1, 2008," said Jaiswal.
Jaiswal said the dowry involved in Pawanjot's marriage was 30 lakhs rupees (three million rupees or about $75,000 Cdn)."Pawanjot's husband and in-laws kept postponing her visa application. Later, the family demanded 30 lakhs for sponsoring the bride to Canada," he said.
"The father-in-law refused to give this money and, after waiting for three years, Pawanjot came to Canada legally on her own. It annoyed her husband and in-laws."
Jaiswal described the case as bringing a "new dimension" to the issue of abandoned brides.
The extent of the social tragedy is reflected in official studies that say 30,000 women in India have been left behind by their overseas-based husbands, referred to as non-resident Indians.
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