Sukhdave Athwal and (right) Bachan Kaur Athwal, pictured today, have both received life sentences for the murder of Surjit Kaur Athwal
Posted on 09/19/2007 9:23:53 AM PDT by Stoat
A grandmother was today facing the prospect of dying in prison after she was jailed for life for ordering the murder of her daughter-in-law.
Bachan Athwal, 70, arranged for Heathrow Customs officer Surjit Athwal to "disappear off the surface of the earth" after discovering she was having an affair and that she wanted to end her marriage.
Bachan's son Sukhdave, 43, was also given a life sentence at the Old Bailey today for his part in the murder of his wife, whose body has never been found.
Judge Giles Forrester told Bachan she would serve a minimum of 20 years. Sukhdave was ordered to serve at least 27 years before he can be considered for release.
Surjit, 27, was lured on a trip to India in December 1998 by her mother-in-law for a family wedding - but never returned.
Later the Sikh grandmother of 16 boasted that she had got rid of Surjit by getting a relative to strangle her and throw the body into a river.
Today Surjit's family praised the police investigation but said the Met, the Foreign Office and agencies in India should have acted faster.
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Sukhdave Athwal and (right) Bachan Kaur Athwal, pictured today, have both received life sentences for the murder of Surjit Kaur Athwal
Jagdeesh Singh, brother of the victim, said his family had been left 'disorientated' by the fact no body was ever found
Her brother Jagdeesh Singh called for a public inquiry into how honour killings such as his sister's, and the recent case of Banaz Mahmod, are treated by the authorities.
Earlier this year the father and uncle of Miss Mahmod, 20, were sentenced to life after she was strangled and her body buried in a suitcase for falling in love with a man outside the Kurdish community. It was claimed Miss Mahmod's fears for her safety were not taken seriously by the authorities.
Bachan, from Hayes, west London, was found guilty of murder at an earlier trial.
Heathrow bus driver Sukhdave, who still lives with his mother, was also found guilty of murder. Both had denied the offences.
The grey-haired widow, who has always protested her innocence, wept in the dock with her head bowed as she became one of the oldest women in Britain to be jailed for life in recent times.
Bachan shook her head as the judge told them: "How you could commit this unspeakable act I do not know. There was no motive worthy of the name. You did it because you perceived she had brought shame on the family name.
"In reality you murdered her for no better reason than the existence of matrimonial difficulties and the likely breakdown of the marriage. You decided the so-called honour of your family name was worth more than the life of this young woman."
Bachan took charge of Surjit's young daughter, getting the girl to call her 'mummy', the court heard.
Sukhdave took out a £100,000 insurance policy on his wife the day she left for India but it was never paid out.
During the three-month trial earlier this year, the court heard the pair almost got away with the murder until they were betrayed by relatives who gave evidence.
The court heard Surjit, originally from Coventry, had been a vivacious woman whose Western ways annoyed the family. Then it was discovered she was having an affair with a colleague and wanted to end her 10-year marriage. When she failed to return from India, Sukhdave told her worried relatives and the police that she was a 'slag' who had run away with another man in India.
But Bachan told relatives she had been strangled by a male relative and thrown into the river Ravi in the Punjab. Mother and son attempted to disrupt the Indian investigation by sending forged letters, supposedly from the police. Sukhdave divorced Surjit in her absence and remarried.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Sikh Association said: "The MPSA, taking a clear steer from the Sikh religion, condemns crimes against women, including honour killings. However, we accept that Sikhs, reverting to their Punjabi culture which is ingrained deeply in their psyche and belief system, are responsible for many girls like Surjit disappearing without trace.
"The outcome of the trial sends out a clear message to those that hide behind Sikhism to justify their horrendous crimes. We acknowledge the persistence, patience and incredible bravery of the family and witnesses."
The outcome of the trial sends out a clear message to those that hide behind Sikhism to justify their horrendous crimes.
------------------------A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Sikh Association
**********************************************
A very, very rare condemnation of an entire culture and belief system, as opposed to the standard PC "it was only a twisted anomaly" excuse, and rarer still from such a source.
Bravo to the Met Police Sikh Association for not following the tired and dangerous template of "circling the wagons" when culturally-related criminality occurs.
Whoa.
And we’ve been told that the Sikhs were the tolerant ones with the turbans........
Paging Governor Richardson.
It’s worth mentioning here that the misogynistic concept of “honor killings” are not limited to Islam but seems to be part of numerous cultures.
It’s high damned time those who murder in the name of religion be held accountable. I say good for the court!
tolerant compared to Muslims
tolerant compared to Muslims
???
Maybe its me.
And those cultures would be?
I didn’t realize the Sikhs practiced honor killing. Twisted, on reflection, not anymore than partial birth abortion part of our society worships.
Isn't multiculturalism grand? One thing you'll never see: Those who force this crap on us, the politicians, will never have a man wearing a turban in their security details. As for you and I? We are to accept, love and embrace every sick culture they force on us under the banner of multiculturalism. I wonder how bad Western culture will have to get before they admit this whole bizarre thing is a mistake? I also wonder if Western culture will survive our own foolishness?
(1) They actually killed someone who did something wrong (i.e. the victim committed adultery) as opposed to the usual Islamic scenario where a woman who has been raped will be killed and her attacker will suffer no consequences, or where a woman is murdered for marrying and being faithful to a man her family doesn't like.
(2) Official Sikh groups have come out to condemn this crime in strong terms.
As should be repeated, “Honor Killings” are cultural in nature.
It’s not just for Muslims, anymore.
We know how that would end?
That is what moooslims want, their own laws where-ever they might reside.
Just a clash of cultures.
Where’s the British version of the ACLU?
Not at all surprising, actually. While many cultures have engaged in honour killings, most have abandoned the practice or are in the process of doing so (with one notable exception, of course).
According to a source none other than the Metropolitan Police Sikh Association:
".....we accept that Sikhs, reverting to their Punjabi culture which is ingrained deeply in their psyche and belief system, are responsible for many girls like Surjit disappearing without trace. "
As usual, the Leftist apologists and professional victicrats who have told you how 'tolerant' they are merely wish to put forth a 'multicultural' smokescreen to further their own agendas.
Some cultures ARE better than others, and some ARE rotten at the core and are in desperate need of a Reformation, at the very least.
“That is what moooslims want, their own laws where-ever they might reside.”
They are not Muslims they’re Sikh.
It's VERY surprising to have representatives of a particular ethnicity denounce their own cultural practices while in a Western country. It's extremely rare, as evidenced by the endless bleating about 'tolerance' and 'diversity' that we are all subjected to.
In India, yes there is a significant and vocal movement to stop honor killings, but those who believe in such practices often move to the West, and in the West they have Leftist political organizations who will instantly rush to their defense. And that defense normally takes great pains to couch any criminality in terms of an 'aberration', and will scream "racist!" at anyone who dares suggest that it is or ever has been a cultural norm.
That doesn’t mesh with my own experience here in Toronto. There are a lot of immigrants from India here, most of whom are well-educated and came here to get away from the backwardness “back home”. To be sure there are knuckle-draggers here but they are not the norm. Also, the PC talk about “protecting their culture” comes from white liberals; most immigrants want nothing to do with the multicult BS.
I haven’t known the educated ones to embrace the ‘support groups’ to begin with because they have no need of them.
However, enough uneducated ones do rush to the PC Mafia that their voices are possibly magnified out of proportion to their numbers.
Just as with blacks here in the USA, the educated ones reject the Jesse Jacksons and the Al Sharptons and the NAACP, but enough uneducated ones exist to keep these race-pinps in their handmade Italian suits.
Educated ethnic minorities of all stripes would do wonders for their cultures if they would vocally and actively reject such “diversity” sham organizations, but not enough do and so the Left is allowed to have it’s message hold sway in the popular culture.
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