Grandmother Guilty Of Murder Plot

[Mehtab Singh]

A 70-year-old grandmother and her son have been found guilty of murdering his wife in a so-called "honour killing".

Bachan Athwal and her son Sukhdave, 43, arranged the murder of Surjit Athwal to defend the family honour.

Surjit, 27, who wanted a divorce, went missing in 1998 after going to the Punjab with her mother-in-law.

An Old Bailey judge remanded the mother and son from Hayes, west London, into custody and told them to expect a life term when sentenced in September.

Mother-of-two Surjit, originally from Coventry, never returned from a trip with Bachan Athwal to a family wedding in India in December 1998.

Later, the grandmother of 16 children boasted she had got rid of her by getting a relative to strangle her and throw her body into a river in the Punjab. Her body has never been found.

Frightened relatives

The pair were only caught when "frightened" members of their own family reported them to police.

"They were frightened that if they told anybody, the same sort of thing might happen to them as they believed happened to the victim," Michael Worsley QC, prosecuting, said.

Mr Worsley said "family honour was at stake" when it was discovered Surjit was having an affair with a married man and wanted a divorce.

Bachan vowed a divorce would could only take place "over my dead body".

Bachan called a family meeting to discuss killing Surjit a month before she vanished, the court heard.

Sarbjit Athwal, another daughter-in-law, said: "My mother-in-law said she wasn't getting on and it was causing too much confusion and problems in the family - and they were going to get rid of Surjit."

After having her killed, Bachan and Sukhdave then pretended Surjit had run away. They forged letters supposed to be from the Metropolitan Police to their Indian counterparts to try and fool them.

Mother and son also faked a document transferring ownership of the home Surjit part-owned into their names.

Sukhdave took out a £100,000 insurance policy on his wife the day she left for India. It was never paid out.

He later divorced Surjit in her absence, claiming she deserted him, and then he married someone else, said Mr Worsley.

Surjit first met her Sikh husband on her wedding day in 1988, when she was just 16.

She had worked as a customs officer at Heathrow Airport and married Sukhdave, who worked as a driver at the airport.

Judge Giles Forrester remanded the mother and son in custody for sentencing on 19 September.

http://www.samachar.com/showurl.php?rurl=h...eyword=bbc_home

[Prem]

I hope they both rot in prison for the rest of their lives.

I also hope that this sends a message out to all those backward people in this country that cling to their backwardness and think they can get away with oppressing Sikh women and men and boys and girls by forcing them to get married. This story should be posted to the message board of every Gurdwara in the country so that if there are any evil people thinking they can get away with it they will have a very big surprise waiting for them.

[Prem]

Watch this news report on the subject, including an interview with her brother, who looks like a wonderful man

Surjit Athwal Murder

What can we do collectively to rid ourselves of these kind of scum?

[Medallion Stallion]

This is gona give sikhs the wrong image in the media i blame punjabi mentality.............its understanable on some level why the girl cheated cos she was forced into a marriage at 16 to a older man BUT thats no reason to kill her i hate the term ''honour killing'' invented by the media its murder plain and simple!

[Harmeet_Singh]

Watch this news report on the subject, including an interview with her brother, who looks like a wonderful man

Surjit Athwal Murder

What can we do collectively to rid ourselves of these kind of scum?

just loooking at the physical roop of this bhai saab looks amazingg it must be due to there upbringing therefore the bhenji mustve been very spiritual as well, its a shame she was destined to marry into a family like thatt

[Guest Dancing Warrior]

I hope they both rot in prison for the rest of their lives.

I also hope that this sends a message out to all those backward people in this country that cling to their backwardness and think they can get away with oppressing Sikh women and men and boys and girls by forcing them to get married. This story should be posted to the message board of every Gurdwara in the country so that if there are any evil people thinking they can get away with it they will have a very big surprise waiting for them.

couldn’t have said it better myself

[Punjabi_Link]

Hearing about these kinds of incident gets my blood boiling at times. I can’t believe how ignorant some people can be.

To all the monay haters out there, I hope you are eating crow right now. This type of behaviour is also performed by so called “gursikh” families as well. This particular incident shows it.

[B4ND4]

Hearing about these kinds of incident gets my blood boiling at times. I can't believe how ignorant some people can be.

To all the monay haters out there, I hope you are eating crow right now. This type of behaviour is also performed by so called "gursikh" families as well. This particular incident shows it.

No one has denied this. Why are you always trying to create the divide veer?? there are many gursikhs who respect evryone..be it monay or kesdhari..and there are kesdharis who hate monay. Same applies to the monay too.

[Punjabi_Link]

Hearing about these kinds of incident gets my blood boiling at times. I can't believe how ignorant some people can be.

To all the monay haters out there, I hope you are eating crow right now. This type of behaviour is also performed by so called "gursikh" families as well. This particular incident shows it.

No one has denied this. Why are you always trying to create the divide veer?? there are many gursikhs who respect evryone..be it monay or kesdhari..and there are kesdharis who hate monay. Same applies to the monay too.

Not true.

I have in the past, discuss this with people, but sadly they disagree with me and said only monay do such things similar to how they said only monay girls convert to Islam while amritdhari women don't, which later on was proved wrong as well.

[Khalsa_Girl_1]

Hearing about these kinds of incident gets my blood boiling at times. I can’t believe how ignorant some people can be.

To all the monay haters out there, I hope you are eating crow right now. This type of behaviour is also performed by so called “gursikh” families as well. This particular incident shows it.

who said that the guy who help plot the murder was a "gursikh"?

sounds like youre trying to pull up a debate.. :wub:

anyway

about this incident...

its heartbreaking to hear such a story.. and to add, know that a thing like this was caused by a man with a turban? its just despicable

its like some ppl are TRYING to make sikhs looked at with disgust.

and in my views, arranged marriages are so scary..

i know a lot of ppl still believe that arranged marriages are good. i believe that they were at one point, but not now..

even sikh men these days abuse women (and children) for no apparent reason..

maybe the reason she wanted a divorce was cuz of him. as someone said before.. looks as if she comes from a religious family.. im sure there were many reasons for her wanting a divorce. (not saying that its a good thing)

a lot of men still dont know what it means to be a husband. its not just putting food on the table, or disciplining their kids, or keeping the last name in high spirits..

im disgusted to see a sikh do such a thing.

IF she was cheating and wanted to divorce, so be it.. she would be punished..

but for a human to even try to think they can take the roll of punishing someone like that..its surprising.

in fact, this is what muslims do... not sikhs.

and as for so called "honor" killings... such a thing shouldnt exist anymore.. as i said.. leave the punishment in Gods hands.

and i wonder.. where's the husband's and mother in law's honor now?

....what a disgrace