Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The wife of a Dunedin man stabbed to death has revealed she rejected a proposal from the man accused of his murder.
Gurjit Singh was found dead on the lawn of his home in January last year after being stabbed more than 40 times.
A 35-year-old man, known only as Rajinder, is on trial for murder at the High Court.
His defence lawyer said Rajinder had no reason to kill Singh and there was no animosity between the two men.
Speaking through a translator, Singh’s wife Kamaljeet Kaur told the court she rejected Rajinder’s profile from a marriage bureau in India around 2022 because she was already in contact with Singh.
“I was not interested,” she said. Her parents said no to Rajinder’s proposal.
She said she told Singh about his approach the same day.
Kaur and Singh met online in 2021 and married in India in May 2023. The couple waited for a partner visa in order for Kaur to move to New Zealand in 2024.
Kaur said her bags were packed and she was preparing to leave India when she found out Singh had been killed.
She travelled from India to Dunedin to give evidence for the prosecution at Rajinder’s trial.
Kaur confirmed her sister married one of Rajinder’s relatives.
She also described overhearing a conversation on speaker phone where she found out Rajinder’s sister wanted her brother to marry Singh’s sister but Singh rejected the idea because she was too young.
Singh had moved to Dunedin as a result of Rajinder’s job offer and had mentioned him a few times when he was his boss, Kaur said.
Kaur said Singh later struck out on his own and was very successful.
The couple was in contact daily, with Kaur last receiving a photo from Singh as he drove home from a pizza party the night before he was found dead.
Her husband would normally contact her in the morning, so she was worried when she did not hear from him and calls and messages went unanswered.
Kaur said she asked friend Tarsem Singh to check on her husband and when another mutual friend did so at his request, Singh was found dead.
In response to questions from defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC, Kaur said it was normal for profiles to be sent to a bureau to arrange a marriage.
She said she had never met Rajinder and had refused other proposals the same year because she wanted to study and did not want to marry.
She told Stevens that she was not aware of any difficulties between Rajinder’s family and her own because of her rejection and Singh had never mentioned any difficulties in his relationship with Rajinder.
Kaur said her husband had accepted Rajinder’s job offer because it would improve his chance of becoming a New Zealand resident.
She told Stevens it was possible that discussions could take place with matchmakers without family knowing.
Asked whether the term proposal meant matchmaker negotiations, rather than an actual marriage proposal, Kaur said yes.
The trial is set down for three weeks.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
