NRI wife-killer to be deported to Indian jail from UK

A non-resident Indian (NRI) serving a jail term in a UK jail for killing his wife over eight years ago is to be deported to India to serve the remainder of his murder sentence in Punjab.

Harpreet Aulakh was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in London in December 2010 for ordering the murder of his wife, Geeta Aulakh, after she asked for a divorce. The 40-year-old will be deported under the India-UK Repatriation of Prisoners Act, the BBC reported on Monday.

Also Read | â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹Rahul Gandhi’s gaffes ahead of LS elections to cost Congress party dear

“All arrangements are in place. According to the plan, the UK authorities will bring him to Delhi from where a team of Punjab police officers will bring him to Amritsar,” IPS Sahota, a top prison official in Punjab, was quoted as saying.

Inspector general of prisons Roop Kumar said Harpreet, who is from Punjab, had told the UK authorities that he wanted to serve his remaining term in India.

Geeta, 28, was brutally attacked with a machete during the attack in Greenford, west London, in November 2009. She worked for local Indian community radio station, Sunrise Radio, and her murder had hit the headlines around the world at the time of the attack.

In November 2009, the victim, who was the mother of Harpreet’s two sons, was hacked to death with a sword, which her husband of 10 years had chosen from a selection of swords at a store days before the murder.

Also Read | Supreme Court issues notice to WhatsApp; asks why grievance officer not appointed in India? 

The attack took place when Geeta went to pick up her sons after leaving work at the radio station where she worked as a receptionist.

She was found with head injuries and her right hand severed, and died a few hours later in hospital.

Harpreet, also known as Sunny, and two others - Sher Singh, 19, and Jaswant Dhillon, 30, - were also found guilty of Geeta’s murder in 2010. Singh, who actually wielded the sword, and Dhillon, who acted as the lookout for the group, were sentenced to 22 years behind bars.

Also Read | Facebook bans Myanmar Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing, 19 others over rights abuses 

During the trial, the court was told that British-born Indian-origin Geeta wanted to divorce her husband over his involvement in violent crimes, leading him to plot her murder.