A court order sending Kalvinder Dosanjh, of Indain-origin, to 14 years imprisonment on Wednesday for securing a hitman for the honour killing of his daughter and her Jewish boyfriend would chill the potential plotters of such a crime.
Presently a high-profile campaign is on to curb the evil practise, which the police describe as the most brutal and callous form of murder.
The plot he allegedly hatched could form the core of any murder thriller. He schemed to have the boyfriend's father shot to lure the couple, who were in hiding, to come out for the funeral. The hitman was then required to shoot the daughter and her lover. But the hitman was in reality an undercover policeman. Dosanjh and his accomplice were arrested before anyone was hurt.
An Old Bailey judge told Dosanjh that the sentence had to reflect public outrage at the crime and deter others. The judge said Dosanjh had objected to his 23-year-old daughter Sanjit's boyfriend with whom she had gone to live in 2001.
"More significantly, you were angered because you regarded her more as your property than your daughter. You pursued her for two years and in 2003 you decided to have her, her boyfriend and his father killed."
{{/usCountry}}"More significantly, you were angered because you regarded her more as your property than your daughter. You pursued her for two years and in 2003 you decided to have her, her boyfriend and his father killed."
{{/usCountry}}The judge said he was quite convinced that Dosanjh felt his daughter had brought dishonour to the family. Luckily the police could prevent deaths of three people.
Jagjit Singh Rai, 54, a businessman and restaurant owner, of Ilford, east London, who acted as a middle-man, pleaded guilty and was jailed for nine years.
The police later said that for Dosanjh killing was a way of dealing with the dishonour and disgrace that he believed had been done by the daughter, her lover and the father of the boyfriend. It was sheer chance that the police came to know of the murder plot. They were told about it when Rai started to inquire about hitman to hire.