Four jailed for attack on retired Indian General in London

 
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Robin de Peyer10 December 2013
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Four people have been jailed for attacking a retired Indian Army General while he was staying in London.

Three men and one woman attacked Lt-Gen Kuldip Singh Brar, 78, as he walked back to his hotel near Marble Arch last year.

Police said the attack was an 'organised attempt to assassinate' him.

The former General, a Sikh, is believed to have been targeted by the group because of his role as a military leader during the 1984 Operation Blue Star siege at the Golden temple, in which nearly 500 Sikhs were killed in clashes with the Indian army.

Members of the group travelled to London from as far afield as Birmingham when they heard the Indian national was in London. They checked the area around the hotel at which he was staying with his wife, before exchanging details about the couple’s movements around the capital on their mobile phones.

Three members of the group then stalked the pair in Old Quebec Street as they returned to their hotel after an evening out on September 30 last year.

Jailed: Barjinder Singh Sangha faces 10 years behind bars

One, Barkinder Singh Sangha, grabbed Lt-Gen Brar’s 68-year-old wife Mardeep by the throat and pinned her against a wall. He then joined the others in the attack on her husband, using a knife to slash at his neck. The group then fled the scene, running towards Oxford Street as Lt-Gen Brar lay seriously injured on the ground, with a cut from his ear to beneath his adam’s apple.

The subsequent investigation, led by the Met’s counter-terrorism squad, saw a total of 15 people arrested in London and the east Midlands.

Commander Richard Walton, who led the investigation, said: “This was a pre-planned and organised attempt to assassinate General Brar for his military involvement in the siege of the Golden temple in India in 1984.

Attacker: Dilbag Singh

“It was ultimately unsuccessful and we are pleased that the sentencing reflects the seriousness of this attack.”

Two men and a woman were found guilty of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm at Southwark Crown Court today.

Harjit Kaur, 39, was jailed for 11 years

Mandeep Singh Sandhu, 35, of Great Barr in Birmingham was jailed for 14 years; Dilbag Singh, 37, of no fixed address, was also sentenced to 14 years in prison; and Harjit Kaur, 39, of Hayes in Middlesex was jailed for 11 years.

Trip: Mandeep Singh Sandhu, 35, travelled from Birmingham for the attack

Another man, Barjinder Singh Sangha, 34, of Wolverhampton, had previously admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at Southwark Crown Court in January. He faces 10-and-a-half years in prison after being sentenced at the same court today.

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