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Mom to serve jail term for son's abduction

The mansion Rajvinder Kaur shared with her husband and three children in a gated community in Calabasas could easily fetch $5 million.

They certainly were living more than an average immigrant's dream.

For long Rajvinder and her restaurateur husband Teja Singh were the envy of the community.

But this week, she will leave her home in the exclusive California neighbourhood and be escorted to a medium-security state prison where she is expected to serve her four-year sentence.

Among the people who are going to miss her is five-year-old Pirmuir, who was kidnapped last August at her instigation. The kidnappers had sought $200,000 from her husband.

But Teja Singh says he has forgiven his wife.

Within moments of her arrest, he had got in touch with defence attorneys and convinced the court to reduce her bail from $5 million to $2 million.

Since then, he has been telling his relatives and friends that he wished she had been simply forgiven for her "foolish" plan.

He has reportedly paid up the many debts Rajvinder Kaur had piled up over the years, especially a $100,000 debt in India.

The kidnapping was a desperate act to pay up that debt, officials say, but they are not sure how she got into the debts.

Many may find it difficult to believe that the husband could be so forgiving, people who know the couple say.

But for the sake of his children Teja Singh made up with his wife.

For one thing, he was relieved that the child was released unharmed a day after the kidnapping even though the ransom was not paid at the insistence of the police.

"This guy is 100 per cent behind her," defence attorney Donald Re said. "That's the biggest problem now -- the family is devastated that she is going away."

With good behaviour though, Rajvinder could be out in about two years.

But for the plea bargain, she and three male plotters would have got stiffer sentences, officials say.

As Rajvinder Kaur was getting ready for prison, officials characterized the kidnapping plot as an inept and not-so-serious effort. Deputy District Attorney Michael Wilson termed it a "friendly kidnapping", adding that the men had no intention of harming the child anyway.

The act began when two armed men in ski masks barged into the Calabasas home, tied and handcuffed Rajvinder Kaur, took the boy and left a ransom note. A third man was waiting for his colleagues and the boy outside the home.

Teja Singh was away at work at the time.

As the authorities started their investigation, they had a gut feeling that the three men were amateurs. The rope they had used to tie up Rajvinder, for instance, was bought from a sporting goods store near her home.

When the kidnappers contacted Singh to press for the ransom, they were using cell phones.

Authorities lost no time in warning the kidnappers that they had traced them and that no ransom would be forthcoming.

The boy was dropped off near a parking lot a few miles from his home, nearly 24 hours after the kidnapping. And it took the police a few days to arrest to arrest Tajinder Singh, Balwinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh.

They would not rat on Rajvinder Kaur, though. It took investigators many weeks to get the truth out of the kidnappers.

Finally, they arrived at her Calabasas home around Thanksgiving Day and arrested her nearly 90 days after her cohorts had been caught.

Investigators were convinced Rajvinder had known the men for several years. "You just don't dig up people to kidnap your son," police Captain Robert Malone had told reporters soon after their arrest.

Teja Singh and his wife received over $2 million about a decade ago in a motor insurance settlement and officials believe she and her husband had $1 million in a joint account.

But however loving he has been, Teja Singh would not allow his wife a free hand.

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