Surjit Athwal was a British-Indian woman who was murdered by her husband and his mother in 1998. Her body has never been found.
Background[]
Surjit Athwal was born in England and married Sukhdave Athwal at age 16 in an arranged marriage; he was ten years older. Sukhdave's mother, Bachan, had a problem with Surjit, and eventually, both Sukhdave and Bachan were abusive to Surjit. Surjit ended up having an affair with another man, and when Bachan and Sukhdave found out about this, they conspired along with other family members to kill her.
Case[]
Sukhdave and Bakahn took Surjit to India to attend a wedding on 4 December 1998. They returned to the UK without her on 18 December and told conflicting stories about why Surjit wasn't with them. It later came out that they'd had her killed in India, and her body was dumped in the Ravi River. It's never been recovered.
Sukhdave and Bakahn were convicted of Surjit's murder in 2007. It is one of the only times somebody was convicted in the UK of a murder that took place outside of the UK.
Sources[]
- Surjit Athwal on Wikipedia