PUNJAB-ORIGIN MAN GETS LIFE TERM FOR MURDER IN UK
Saturday, 08/08/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: A Southall-based Punjab-origin man who murdered a father-of-three in a revenge attack in January was sentenced by the high court to life imprisonment on Thursday.
Sanjay Salhorta, 26, was found guilty of murder on 31 July and was on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment to serve a minimum of 26-and-a-half-years. The victim was Harinder Rattan, 41, who died of multiple stab wounds after he was attacked near his home in Southall on 4 January.
The court was told that that the murder originated from an incident which took place on 20 December 2014, when Rattan was sitting in his car. The door was opened by a man in a hooded top who struck him in the face and demanded he get out. Rattan retaliated by hitting him over the head with a crowbar until he ran off. That man was Salhotra and his blood and DNA was found on the crowbar when it was forensically analysed following Rattan’s murder.
The police said that on the night of his death, Rattan was left lying in the road, with Salhotra initially hiding in a nearby alleyway and then going to the home of his friend, Inderjit Bhachu, who let him in after he lied and said that he was chased by some youths. Bhachu and Salhotra then drove to Staines where they set fire to Salhotra’s clothing. The police searched the alleyway and found the knife - which had been cleaned and a pair of latex gloves with Harinder Rattan’s DNA of on them.
Salhotra was arrested on 5 January, Bhachu the following day. Bhachu, 28, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment after he had previously pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
