Sukhwinder Singh had killed his 39-year-old brother-in-law in August last year after becoming convinced that he was having an affair with his wife.
LONDON – A Punjabi-origin man, who was allowed into the UK following “an administrative error”, has been sentenced to five years in jail for murdering his brother-in-law in Britain.
Sukhwinder Singh, 41, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, became delusional and stabbed Harish Kumar to death before driving the dead body to West Bromwich police station in the West Midlands and handing himself in August 2017.
The man was jailed after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday and is set to receive mental health treatment before starting his sentence. At the end of his prison term, Singh will be deported to India.
“I have to say the circumstances of this offence lead me to conclude without hesitation that you are an extremely dangerous individual,” judge Michael Challinor said at the sentencing hearing.
Singh had killed his 39-year-old brother-in-law in August last year after becoming convinced that he was having an affair with his wife. The UK court heard how Singh had killed a student union president in Jalandhar with a “kirpan” in 1998. He had been released from a Punjab jail after serving seven years for the murder, in which the victim was knocked off a motorbike and repeatedly stabbed around 18 times. He was out on bail pending an appeal when he fled to the UK in 2007, entering on a six-month visa.
Following “an administrative error” by British authorities, Singh was granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK and successfully applied for British citizenship in 2011.
“You were illegally in this country, having fled India, where you should have been in prison serving a sentence for murder, and then you killed for a second time using a similar weapon, namely a knife,” the judge noted.
Prosecutors told the court about how Singh was a user of heroin and crack cocaine, adding to his paranoia.
Prosecutor Nigel Power told the court: “On the morning of Thursday, August 10, 2017, the defendant went into the front office of West Bromwich police station and said ‘I have a dead body in the car’. He was telling the truth. The deceased was in the front passenger seat of his BMW car and had been killed by a single stab wound to the chest, which also cut the seat-belt almost in half.”
Singh’s wife had reported her concerns over his mental health to the police and social services, and on the day of the killing was moving to a women’s refuge.
Detective Inspector Harry Harrison, from West Midlands Police’s homicide team, said: “This was an unusual case as Singh brought his victim to us; casually walking into the station to reveal Kumar was dead in his passenger seat.
“He had been driving around with Kumar dead next to him for hours before deciding to come to police. It was quickly established he had been responsible for the stabbing, and he will now serve time in prison to reflect that.”
