Source: Radio New Zealand
Rajinder was found guilty of murder following a High Court jury trial last year. RNZ
The man who murdered Gurjit Singh at his Dunedin home will spend at least 17 years behind bars.
The 35-year-old, known only as Rajinder, was jailed for life with a 17-and-a-half year non-parole period, when he appeared in the High Court on Wednesday morning.
Justice Dunningham told Rajinder he callously killed a man who trusted him.
She also ordered him to pay more than $8000 in reparation payments.
Singh, 27, was found dead on the lawn of the property in January in 2024 after being stabbed more than 40 times.
Rajinder was found guilty of murder following a High Court jury trial last year.
During the trial, the Crown said Rajinder left DNA evidence at the scene and lied to police, while Rajinder’s defence lawyer called the evidence flawed and said his client had no motive for murdering his former employee.
A complicated love triangle was aired during the trial involving Singh, his widow Kamaljeet Kaur and Rajinder.
Prosecutor Richard Smith said Kaur rejected Rajinder’s marriage proposal through a broker in 2022 before marrying Singh the following year, and Singh had also rejected Rajinder’s plan to marry his sister.
He said both rejections were motive for murder, with the killing happening shortly before Kaur was due to arrive from India to live with Singh.
But Defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC called the argument a Crown “fantasy”, saying Rajinder was not upset to find out she had married Singh and it was instead Kaur’s family who approached his family twice to pursue a marriage.
She said he had been happily married since January 2023.
Smith said the day before the murder Rajinder had bought a “murder kit” including gloves, a knife and neck gaiter, but Stevens said it did not make sense for her client to buy the items using his own bank account, suggesting they were brought for his work as a fibre-optic cable technician.
In summing up, Justice Dunningham said there was no dispute that Singh was violently attacked but the jury needed to decide whether Rajinder was responsible.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday Rajinder’s wife Gurpreet Kaur admitted getting rid of evidence in the murder investigation.
Evidence of her involvement was suppressed during the trial until she pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at the High Court.
She admitted hiding her husband’s shoes in a bathroom bin after police visited her workplace and told her Rajinder was being charged. Tiny fragments of glass consistent with a shattered window from the murder scene were found on the shoes.
Gurpreet Kaur will be sentenced in July.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
