On 3 December, Kulwinder Kaur, who was performing at a wedding function at Maur Mandi near Bathinda, was gunned down by a drunk man. Why did she deserve death? Simple. Kulwinder Kaur turned down the man (aka Lucky Goyal), who wanted to dance with her on stage.
By god’s grace, everything was going good for us. We were really happy. Finally, things seemed to work for us. We had just visited the doctor a few days back and the doctor told us that Kulwinder Kaur was expecting. But the doctor had asked us to visit again after 20 days to reconfirm the news. I guess that’ll never happen now.Harjinder Singh, Kulwinder Kaur’s husband
Harjinder did visit the hospital again, but only to collect Kalwinder Kaur’s lifeless body.
Harjinder still can’t believe that his wife is no more. “We had got married last year on 30 October. But we knew each other for a long time. You see, we worked together. I am a DJ and used to work with the same orchestra where Kulwinder used to work. That’s how I got to know her,” he reminisces.
It was Kulwinder’s simplicity and kindness that attracted Harjinder to her. “She had studied till class 5 or 6 but she was as smart as any educated person,” he said.
25-year-old Kulwinder was the youngest in her family. She had two elder sisters and three elder brothers. One of her brothers died a few years ago. Her sister-in-law passed away a day before her wedding. “They had three kids and Kulwinder took it upon herself to raise them,” said Harjinder.
So what exactly happened on that fateful night of 3 December?
“It was like any other function. I was standing near the DJ console. I wasn’t playing that night, I had just gone with Kulwinder. I saw a man who kept insisting that Kulwinder dance with him on stage. She refused his advances a number of times. I went close to the stage at least four to five times to stop the man. He was reeking of alcohol and was called Lucky Goyal,” recounts Harjinder.
Dancers are often subject to such lewd behaviour in functions like these. “It has happened to us before as well. Kulwinder has complained about inebriated wedding attendees making advances. But we always ignored it. Rather, we were told to ignore such remarks,” said Harjinder.
That’s exactly what Harjinder did that night, but little did he know that it would cost his wife her life. “We thought Lucky Goyal would understand and behave himself. But we were wrong. Out of nowhere he took out his .12 bore and shot Kulwinder in the head. There was mayhem at the function. And all we saw was Kulwinder’s lifeless, blood-spattered body lying on stage,” said Harjinder.
What happened after that, we all know and saw.
“It was inhuman to see how Kulwinder’s body was dragged off the stage. Even animals are not treated this way. The worst part was that there was no security provided at the time of the incident or after. No one came to help us,” he said.
Given social media’s abysmally short attention span, all we can do is hope that the tragedy that befell Kulwinder doesn’t become yet another viral video – one that will do the rounds extensively, before fading into oblivion.
Kulwinder Kaur deserves justice.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)