Wolverhampton murder accused Gurpreet Singh saw wives as 'disposable objects'
A company boss accused of strangling his second wife and arranging the murder of his first wife believed that wives were “disposable objects”, it was claimed.
Gurpreet Singh had kept Sarbjit Kaur as a mistress for more than two years while he was still married to his first wife Amandeep Kaur, the prosecution alleged.
Mr David Mason QC also suggested that a mystery figure, believed to be a female accomplice, seen arriving and departing the murder scene in Rookery Lane, Wolverhampton, at the time Sarbjit was killed, was his latest mistress.
Singh, 44, denies murdering Sarbjit on February 16 last year and soliciting the murder of Amandeep in 2013 by offering an employee £20,000 to stab her in the neck.
The alleged hitman failed to carry out the killing. Amandeep died of a brain haemorrhage a year later while on holiday with Singh in India.
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The defendant was shown CCTV footage of the unknown figure walking up the drive of the detached Penn property to Sarbjit’s sewing workshop at about 8.15am and leaving at 9.07am, four minutes after Singh left the house for work.
Singh claimed he was in the living room until 8.30am watching the news on TV, a set positioned in the bay window overlooking the drive.
He said he had not seen anyone pass the window and he was not aware of anyone being in the property.
He suggested she may have been one of Sarbjit’s customers. Asked if he had been having an affair with the mystery visitor, he said “I’m not that sort of person.”
But Mr Mason accused him of being in a relationship with Sarbjit for more than two years whilst he was still married to his first wife, moving her into a house he owned in Martin Street where she told neighbours that Singh was her husband. The defendant replied: “No, sir.”
Mr Mason added: “I suggest you think that wives are just disposable objects.”
Singh denied the charge, saying: “I come from a farming family, we work hard. In my years in this country, I never even jumped a red light.”
The alleged accomplice appeared to be wearing a parka with a fur-lined hood and carrying a Sports Direct bag.
The Birmingham Crown Court jury has heard that Singh received a WhatsApp message three weeks before Sarbjit’s death warning about a woman, pictured in the message dressed in a similar fashion, going round knocking on people’s doors, who had a “gang of men waiting to steal, rob and hurt” people.
Mr Mason asked Singh: “Was it your idea that your helper that day should be wearing a furry-hooded parka with a bag just in case the police think this person might have something to do with the woman in the photograph on your phone?” Singh replied: “No, sir.”
The trial continues.
