Indian woman slain in Vizcaya tagged in kidnaps

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – Police authorities tagged the 37-year-old Indian businesswoman slain here last August as one of the alleged leaders of a kidnapping syndicate operating in Northern Luzon.

Senior Superintendent Pedro Danguilan, provincial police director, said investigation identified Harvinder Magar Kaur, who was engaged in money lending and the buy-and-sell business, as an alleged leader and financier of one of the kidnapping groups operating in the Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, the Cordilleras and Central Luzon, mostly preying on wealthy Indian nationals.

Kaur was gunned down by two motorcycle-riding men in broad daylight in front of her house along Santo Domingo street in Barangay Don Mariano Perez here last Aug. 13.

“Based on our investigations, which were also bolstered by the testimonies of some her colleagues, the slain Indian woman was said to be the brains behind the operations of one of the kidnapping groups in Northern Luzon, including Central Luzon,” Danguilan said.

Before she was killed, Kaur was allegedly the subject of intense surveillance and investigation by law enforcement teams for her alleged link to a number of kidnappings and killings of Northern Luzon-based Indian businessman.      

“Her reported link to kidnap-for-ransom cases was further unearthed during the investigation into her mysterious killing,” Danguilan said.

Earlier, police investigators said Kaur’s murder could be the handiwork of her colleagues in the underworld to silence her, as she was reportedly about to confess to authorities her purported knowledge about the kidnappings and killings of her fellow Indians.

Kaur’s relatives, however, denied her alleged involvement in criminal activities.

Kaur’s older brother, Vender Singh, and a brother-in-law were also killed here.

Police said last week’s arrest of a suspected kidnap gang member, Francisco Oliverio Clores, further bolstered earlier suspicions on Kaur’s alleged link to the kidnappings.

Clores, 54, tagged as one of Kaur’s alleged “tacticians,” was arrested at his hideout in Sitio Lanog, Barangay Don Mariano Perez here last Sept. 25.

Clores was nabbed by virtue of an arrest warrant issued by Judge Alipio Yumul of the Capas, Tarlac Regional Trial Court Branch 267 for a kidnapping case.

“Clores is believed to be a tactician for a kidnap-for-ransom syndicate victimizing Indian nationals in the four regions. We believe that now we have him in our custody, the solution of various unsolved kidnappings will not be far behind,” Danguilan said.