(Image source from: BBC)
A Non-Resident Indian (NRI) serving a jail term in a United Kingdom jailhouse for killing his wife more than eight years ago is to be deported to India to serve the remainder of his slaying sentence in Punjab.
The 40-year-old Harpreet Aulakh was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in London in December 2010 for secretly planning the murder of his wife, Geeta Aulakh, after she asked for a divorce. According to a report by BBC, Harpreet Aulakh will be deported under the India-UK Repatriation of Prisoners Act.
"All arrangements are in place. According to the plan, the UK authorities will bring him to Delhi from where a team of Punjab police officers will bring him to Amritsar," IPS (Indian Police Service) Sahota, a top prison official in Punjab, was quoted as saying.
Inspector general of prisons Roop Kumar said Harpreet Aulakh, who is from Punjab, had told UK authorities that he wanted to serve his remaining term in India.
The 28-year-old Geeta Aulakh was viciously attacked with a machete during the attack in Greenford, west London, in November 2009. She was employed for Sunrise Radio, a local Indian community radio station, as a receptionist and at the time of the attack, her murder had hit headlines around the world.
In November 2009, the victim, who was the mother of Harpreet Aulakh's two sons, was hacked to death with a sword, which her spouse of 10 years had selected from a choice of swords at a shop days before the slaying.
The attack happened when Geeta Aulakh went to pick up her sons after leaving work at the radio station.
She died a few hours later in hospital, after suffering from head injuries and her right hand severed.
Harpreet Aulakh aka Sunny, and two others, 19-year-old Sher Singh, and 30-year-old Jaswant Dhillon were as well found guilty of Geeta Aulakh's murder in 2010. Sher Singh, who in reality wielded the sword, and Jaswant Dhillon, who acted as the lookout for the group, were sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment.
During the proceeding, the tribunal was told that British-born Indian-origin Geeta Aulakh wanted to divorce her husband over his participation in ferocious crimes, leading him to plot her murder.
By Sowmya Sangam
