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Indian police yet to decide on Sikh leader's arrest

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November 15, 2000 

NEW DELHI-- (UNB/AP) - Federal investigators said Tuesday they not decided whether to arrest a prominent Sikh leader charged with murdering her pregnant, teen-age daughter.

"Much will depend on whether she will join the investigation" and cooperate, said Gopala Achari, special director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's version of America's FBI.

CBI officials have said they would like to question her before deciding on her arrest.

Kaur wields enormous influence in the politics of Punjab state, where she is supported by the top elected official. She heads the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, which controls the administration of temples of the five century-old Sikh religion.

A district court Monday rejected her application for advance bail, making it possible for police to arrest her immediately. Under Indian law it is possible for people who believe they may be arrested to seek bail in advance.

Kaur's 19-year-old daughter, Harpreet, died in mysterious circumstances in April and was cremated quickly amid secrecy. The CBI has alleged she died of an overdose of sleeping pills that was put into her food on her mother's orders.

Kaur says she is innocent and that her daughter died of food poisoning. But a man who says he was secretly married to Harpreet has charged that his wife and unborn child were killed because his mother-in-law was against their marriage.

Newspapers over the last few months had published pictures of Harpreet's secret wedding to Kamaljit Singh, a farmer in Punjab, where most of India's Sikhs live.

The criminal case stems from a complaint Singh filed against Kaur.

She and six associates, including her state-paid bodyguard, were charged with murder, causing a miscarriage without the consent of the mother, conspiracy, wrongful confinement and destruction of evidence. Each charge carries a maximum 14-year jail sentence.

After her bail plea was rejected Monday, Kaur disappeared from her home town Begowal where she had been spotted on Saturday.

Kaur has been missing from public view since charges were filed against her in October. She appeared only briefly at a religious ceremony in Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest city, on Friday.

Engaged in a fierce power struggle with other Sikh leaders, Kaur was excommunicated from the faith in January by the religion's high priest, Giani Puran Singh. Her supporters retaliated by ousting him in an unprecedented vote.

Elections for her job are scheduled for Nov. 30. Although she has many supporters, the controversies that have marked her 20 months in office may work against her retention of the post.