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NRI
grandma gets 20-yr jail
London:
A 70-year-old grandmother was jailed for minimum of 20 years
today for the murder of her daughter-in-law whom she blamed
for bringing shame on her family by seeking a divorce.
Bachan
Athwal wept as she was sentenced at the Old Bailey for the
“honour killing” of her son’s wife, customs officer Surjit
Kaur Athwal (27).
The pensioner
had vowed that a divorce would happen “over my dead body”
because she thought it would disgrace their Sikh family, the
court heard.
Her son
Sukhdave Singh Athwal (43) was also found guilty of murder
and must serve at least 27 years.
Judge
Giles Forrester describing the murder as “unspeakable”, said,
“This was a heinous crime characterised by great wickedness.
There was no motive worthy of the name. You did it because
you thought she had brought shame on your family. You decided
that the so-called honour of your family was worth more than
the life of this young woman.”
The mother-of-two
“vanished off the face of the earth” after she was lured to
a family wedding in India in December 1998.
The alarm
was raised after she failed to return to her home in Hayes,
west London.
Her body,
believed to be somewhere in the Punjab area in India, has
not been found.
Her husband
had taken-out life insurance policies on his wife worth up
to 100,000 pounds, knowing that she was going to be killed.
“On top
of the wickedness and betrayal there was greed as well,” the
judge added. — Reuters
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