Man ordered killing of Indian-origin wife, court told

LONDON - An Indian-origin woman was hacked to death with a machete by contract killers on the orders of her estranged husband because she wanted a divorce, a British court has heard.

Geeta Aulakh, 28, was hacked to death allegedly by three men, all of them of Indian-origin, in November last year in Greenford, London, Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Her husband Harpreet Aulakh, 32, had offered 5,000 pounds in a room full of Punjabi men for “someone to be murdered”, the Old Bailey court heard Monday.

Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee said: “His reaction displayed a chilling belief, almost certainly culturally rooted, in male unaccountability. How dare a mere woman, as he and other like-minded accomplices viewed her, challenge that smug, chauvinist mind-set. Geeta was in the process of divorcing him and that would not be tolerated.”

Jafferjee told jurors the marriage had broken down for a long time. “It was the stigma of divorce, particularly for her, which let the marriage live on. She ultimately decided she had a life to lead, but away from him,” he said.

According to the report, on Sep 29 last year, just over a month before her death, Geeta had written a Facebook message to her husband in which she said: “I have never hated anyone in my life, but you.”

She had finished her day working as a receptionist at Sunrise Radio in Southall, West London, Nov 16 last year and was on her way to a child minder in nearby Greenford, where her children were waiting for her, the jury heard.

“She never got to collect them,” said Jafferjee.

“The man who organised this murder was none other than her own husband. No one else could possibly wish this utterly innocent, hard-working woman and mother any harm.”

The court heard Harpreet warned his wife’s sister Anita Singh he would kill her because he thought she was having an affair.

Harpreet admitted his marriage was in difficulties but denied any involvement in the killing.

The other accused in the case — Harpreet Singh, 20, of Slough, Berkshire, Sher Singh, 19, of Southall, and Jaswant Singh Dhillon, 30, of Seven Kings, East London — also denied murder charges.

Geeta signed her divorce petition Sep 7 citing verbal abuse, accusations of infidelity and domestic violence, the report said.