Mother Accused of Arranging Abduction of 5-Year-Old Son

A Calabasas woman who needed money to repay debts arranged the kidnapping of her 5-year-old son, hoping her unsuspecting husband would pay the $200,000 ransom, authorities said Monday.

Rajvinder Kaur, 41, is scheduled to be arraigned in Malibu Municipal Court today on charges of kidnapping, child endangerment and burglary, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Three men also have been arrested in connection with the case.

Kaur’s son was abducted from his parents’ house on Temma Court in August. The boy, who wasn’t harmed, was dropped off at a Costco parking lot in Oxnard a night after he was abducted.

Kaur’s husband is not a suspect in the crime, and no ransom was ever paid, said Sgt. Ken Mays of the sheriff’s major crimes unit. The couple owns a restaurant, he added.

Investigators said Kaur had debts in her native India, although they did not know for what. But detectives believe she owed at least $100,000, because she would have needed a significant sum to pay the kidnappers, said Capt. Robert Malone.

Authorities would not comment on what led them to Kaur. But Malone said they identified the kidnappers early in the investigation by examining the rope used to tie up the boys’ parents.

Because it appeared to be new, detectives canvassed area hardware and outdoors stores in hopes of finding a match. Similar rope was found at a nearby Big 5 sporting goods store, Malone said. Investigators were then able to identify two of the suspects in the case by reviewing video footage from the store’s security cameras, he said.

The three men were arrested last week and face kidnapping, child endangerment and burglary charges, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

They are Tajinder Singh, 36, of Fountain Valley; Balwinder Singh, 25, of Fresno, and Jaswinder Singh, 31, who was arrested near Denver and will be extradited to Los Angeles.

The men are not related, but investigators believe Kaur knew them.

“You just don’t dig up people to kidnap your son. It’s safe to say she knew these people prior to the incident,” Malone said.

Kaur was arrested last week and was being held Monday at Twin Towers jail in downtown L.A. No bail has been set, and she has not been given a public defender, authorities said.

The family lives in an exclusive community protected by security guards known as Oak Creek Estates. About 8 p.m. on Aug. 8, two men wearing army fatigues, gloves and ski masks and armed with handguns slipped into the family’s house.

They tied and handcuffed the parents and left a ransom letter.

Investigators found that a back door was unlocked and the alarm was not activated, Mays said. Over the next 19 hours, the kidnappers made several calls to the parents’ house and these were traced to several cellular phone numbers, he said.