Police in India allege a Markham, Ont., woman is behind the "contract killing" of her husband, who was stabbed to death in a rural village there.

Indian police say they're certain the woman, Pawandeep Kaur, is now living in the Toronto area. The victim's family has requested Canadian police to act, but they say they can't do anything until Indian officials go through the proper channels.

Our happiness is gone forever, it will never come back. - Avninder Bains, victim's sister

​Jaskaran Singh, 38, was lured to a remote area and stabbed to death in March, while he was visiting the village of Sawara, in India's Punjab state, police said.

Last week, Indian police arrested four men in connection with the Canadian citizen's death — one who is accused of first-degree murder and three others who are charged with conspiring to commit murder. Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, a senior superintendent with the Indian Police Service, told CBC News that one of the suspects said Kaur, the victim's wife, arranged for the killing from the Greater Toronto Area.

"It was like a contract killing from outside … she wanted to get rid of her husband," Bhullar said.

Police discovered receipts for money transfers that show Kaur sent some 270,000 rupees — about $5,200 — to the accused in two separate instalments, Bhullar said. The suspects said they were promised more money in the future, he added.

Bhullar said he considers his evidence "very strong."

He said Kaur is also wanted for conspiring to commit murder, which can result in a sentence of life in prison.

Kaur went to India for Singh's funeral, the victim's family said, but at the time police didn't consider her a suspect. Bhullar said the Indian Police Service is filing the paperwork to have Kaur extradited to India and hopes the process will be complete in the next week.

None of the allegations against Kaur have been proven in court. CBC News has made multiple attempts, in person and by telephone, to contact her without success.

'We couldn't believe it,' victim's sister says

Jaskaran Singh, 38, was stabbed to death in a village in the Punjab region of India. (CBC) Avninder Bains, Singh's sister, who was told about the allegations by the Indian police, said Kaur still lives in Markham with the couple's two children. She alerted York Regional Police, but the force said it can't act until the Indian Police Service has gone through proper channels.

Bains said she was shocked when she was told her sister-in-law was allegedly the "mastermind" behind the killing, though she said the couple did have a troubled relationship.

Singh had left his wife and children in Canada and was living in India at the time he was killed. The Times of India reports the couple married in 2001 and have a daughter and a son.

"We couldn't believe it," she told CBC News.

"Our happiness is gone forever, it will never come back."

A spokesman for Canada's Department of Justice said officials could neither confirm nor deny that India is seeking extradition in the case.

Bains said her family will keep speaking out about the case with hopes the government will step in.

"We hope we get the justice and we pray for that," she said.