Husband killed newly-wed wife
A newly-wed gay bank worker strangled his wife and burnt her body in a garden incinerator to hide his sexuality, a court heard.
Jasvir Ram Ginday is alleged to have told a neighbour he had set fire to 'general rubbish' after killing Varkha Rani at their home in Walsall – but police found body parts instead.
Prosecutor Miss Debbie Gould alleged that the 29-year-old, who denies murder but has admitted manslaughter, had tried to 'destroy' his wife's body.
Ginday was arrested in September last year after police discovered the unrecognisable remains of his wife at their home in Victory Lane. Mrs Rani, 24, married her killer in India in March last year and moved to the UK to live with him in August.
Claiming that Ginday had told a friend he was attracted to men in his university study group as early as 2008, Miss Gould told jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court: "Despite his sexual orientation, in October 2012 the defendant and his mother travelled to India to find him a wife.
"He met Varkha Rani, shortly before his return to the UK through the intervention of a match-maker, who was known to both families. No doubt to Varkha's family he appeared to be a perfect match for their intelligent, well-educated, and attractive young daughter."
After her arrival in the UK on August 10, Varkha was 'a stranger in a strange land' and appeared to be isolated and alone.
Meanwhile, Miss Gould told the court, the defendant was 'staring reality in the face' and would have had to explain any attempt to divorce his new bride.
Around a month before Varkha's death on September 12 last year, someone at the family home made an internet search for incinerators, the court heard.
Ginday initially told police his wife had walked out on him after 'using' him to gain entry to the UK. But, the Crown allege, Ginday had bought a quantity of petrol on September 12 and put his wife in the incinerator after strangling her with a metal pipe from a vacuum cleaner.
Ginday, who is alleged to have married to 'conceal his homosexuality and please his parents', has also admitted perverting the course of justice by lying to police.
Miss Gould said Varkha's remains may have been taken by binmen if they had not been found by police. Asked if something had been burning, Ginday allegedly told officers it was 'ashes' before correcting himself and saying 'no, I mean leaves'.
An officer then lifted the lid of the metal incinerator at the side of the house and saw the remains of a skull. The trial continues.
