Amandeep's uncle Nirmal Singh claimed that her father Avtar Singh, mother Kulwant Kaur and younger sister Pawandeep Kaur had received their passports stamped with emergency visas for Canada.

He, however, added that the family faced difficulties to secure air-tickets at such a short notice.

“An uncle of Gurinder (Amandeep's husband) called us from Canada and told that Amandeep's funeral has been scheduled for Saturday,” said Nirmal.

Amandeep's father-in-law Kamikar Singh Dhillon (47) was arrested on Tuesday.

Amandeep, 22, was found murdered with stab injuries on neck in the family-run grocery store 'Airport Foods' in Malton, near Mississauga, Ontario, on the morning of January 1.

Her father-in-law, Kamikar Dhillon, was also hospitalised with stab wounds on the neck, which now police think to be “self-inflicted”as per a report that appeared in Canadian daily The Star.

However, the daily quoted the accused's lawyer Sunny Virk as stating that his client had suffered “substantial injuries” on his neck and would require medical treatment in jail. “Many of Kamikar's wounds were not apparent to court observers, but Virk said doctors needed '20 to 30' surgical staples to close a gash on his neck,” added the news report.

Amandeep's relative in Punjab, uncle Nirmal and cousin Kirandeep Kaur (who is permanent resident of Canada and is on a visit to India these days), suspect that she was “murdered by her in-laws so that the loans for the home and store, taken jointly in the name of Amandeep and her husband Gurinder Singh Dhillon in Canada, could get waived under the loan insurance scheme”.

A news report in Toronto Star had quoted sources saying that it could be a case of “honour killing”.

The news report in the daily had added that “as part of the investigation, police were looking into the possibility of the killing falling under the category of cultural honour murder” involving a Sikh family conflict.