NRI found guilty of murder in Britain

BY H.S. RAO

London

Oct. 25: An illegal Indian immigrant who strangled two NRIs in a flat above a Shropshire village chip shop in the UK, has been found guilty of manslaughter.

A jury at Stafford Crown Court cleared Sukhdev Singh of the murder of Jaswant Singh Bajwa and Kulwant Singh Dodar following a three-week trial, but concluded that 26-year-old Singh was provoked before bludgeoning the victims with a hammer in Shawbury.

Bajwa, 30, and 31-year-old Dodar were found dead at the foot of a stairway at the flat above Shawbury Fish Bar on December 7, 2007. Judge Simon Tonking remanded Sukhdev Singh in custody and thanked the jurors who tried the "troubling and intricate" case for their care in reaching their verdicts. Singh, who will be sentenced on a date to be fixed, had been living in the flat and working in the chip shop since arriving in Shawbury in 2004. He was arrested on December 11, 2007, by the police who found him hiding in a Sikh temple. —PTI