Calabasas woman arraigned for kidnapping, child abuse
By Sharon Makokian
Acorn Staff Writer

A Calabasas mother remains jailed today, after being charged with the kidnapping of her own 5-year-old son in August to allegedly acquire money to pay off debts.

Rajvinder Kaur, 41, was arraigned in Division One of Malibu Court Tuesday on one count of kidnapping for ransom and one count of felony child abuse.

She pled "not guilty" to both counts, and was remanded to the Los Angeles County Jail with bail set at $5 million, according to Sandi Gibbons, a representative of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Kaur, who allegedly needed the money to pay off debts in her native country of India, was basically trying to extort the money from her unsuspecting husband, a Thousand Oaks restaurateur, according to Lt. Pat Soll of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Major Crimes Bureau.

"She had apparently tried to get the money through other means, and was not successful, so she came up with this plan," said Soll, who wouldn’t release many specific details on the case because it’s still under investigation.

Kaur’s was abducted from his home on Tues., Aug. 8, 2000, at about 8 p.m., when two armed gunmen, wearing army fatigues, gloves and ski masks broke into the family’s residence in the 4200 block of Temma Court, an exclusive, gated community in Calabasas, police reported.

Before leaving, the gunmen tied and handcuffed the remaining occupants of the home, including Kaur, and left a letter demanding $200,00 for the release of the boy. Kaur’s husband wasn’t in the home at the time—authorities conjecture that he was probably working at his restaurant at the time, said Soll. He’s not a suspect in the case, authorities said.

Over the 19 hours after the initial break-in and abduction, the suspects made numerous telephone calls to the victim’s residence, which were monitored by L.A. County Sheriff’s detectives from the Major Crimes Bureau.

Approximately 24 hours after the abduction––prior to arrangements being made for the ransom exchange––the suspects released the child at a Costco store in Oxnard. The boy was unharmed.

Following the safe return of the child, the Sheriff’s Major Crimes Bureau Metro Unit began an intense investigation to identify the suspects.

It was then determined that Kaur formulated the kidnap plot, and she was arrested on Thanksgiving Day at her Calabasas home.

The investigation also led to the arrest of three alleged co-conspirators: Tajinder Singh, 36, was arrested in his hometown of Fountain Valley on Nov, 22; Jaswinder Singh, 31, was arrested on Nov.23 by Colorado authorities outside of Denver, where he awaits extradition to Los Angeles; and Balwilder Singh, 25, who was arrested on Nov. 25, outside of Fresno.

According to Soll, one of the alleged co-conspirators is a distant family member and the other two are acquaintances of Kaur.

While Jaswinder Singh is awaiting extradition to Los Angeles, the other two male suspects pled "not guilty" in court Tuesday to one count of kidnapping for ransom, one count of first-degree residential burglary and one count of felony child abuse. They remain in jail on $500,000 bail.

Kaur and her alleged co-conspirators will appear in Malibu Court again on Dec. 22, to set a date for a preliminary hearing. Judge Lawrence J. Mira presides over the case.