British woman sentenced to life in prison for killing husband

Ramandeep Kaur Mann, 38, drugged and attacked Sukhjeet Singh while they were visiting relatives in India in 2016

Ramandeep Kaur Mann was given a death sentence by an Indian court for the killing of her husband in 2016.

A British woman has been sentenced to life in jail in India after she was found guilty of killing her husband while on holiday to the country with her young family.

Ramandeep Kaur Mann, 38, from Derby, was convicted of murdering Sukhjeet Singh while they were visiting India in 2016.

A court heard how Mr Singh, 34, was drugged, hit over the head with a hammer and had his throat slit while staying at his parents’ home in Banda, south-east of Delhi.

The killing took place in front of the couple's nine-year-old son who gave evidence against his mother to police.

Mann, who was born in Britain, was convicted alongside her lover, Gurpreet Singh, who had been her husband’s childhood friend. The pair had struck up a relationship when they went on holiday to Dubai the previous year.

Prosecutor Shree Pal Verma told the court in Shahjahanpur that the son had described “how his mother and Gurpreet killed his father in his sleep in their house”, The Times of India reported.

Mann made a dish called dahl, mixed sedatives into it, and served it as part of the family's dinner.

When they were asleep, she allowed Gurpreet Singh into the house, the court was told.

But Mann didn't realise that her other son, who was nine at the time, hadn't touched the dahl that night.

This meant that her son witnessed his mother murdering his father with the help of Gurpreet Singh.

Mr Verma said their son “woke up to noise in the room and saw his mother sitting on his father’s body and smothering him [his father] with a pillow".

“Gurpreet hit his father twice with a hammer on his head," the prosecutor said.

"As his father was still alive, Gurpreet took out a knife from his pocket. His mother took the knife from Gurpreet and slit his father’s throat.”

Reports say that Mann had told police that her husband refused to give her a divorce.

Gurpreet Singh was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with a fine of 10,000 rupees (£98.75).

Sukhjeet Singh, who was born in India, was devoutly religious and well known among the Sikh community in his adopted home city of Derby.

Reacting to the verdict, Sukhjeet Singh's mother said: “I feel relieved. My prayers were answered and I got what I was expecting from the court.

“I was demanding capital punishment for Ramandeep so that no mother's child dies like this.”

Death sentences are carried out by hanging in India, although many are commuted to life imprisonment.

The last executions were of four men in 2020 who had been convicted of gang rape and murder.