The parents of Tarikjot Singh, the 22-year-old ex-boyfriend of the murdered Jasmeen Kaur facing a life sentence, recently claimed that their son was innocent and that Kaur attempted suicide instead.
Singh had pleaded guilty to the murder of the 21-year-old nursing student in February this year.
Singh, who moved to Adelaide, Australia, in 2016, has been accused of abducting Kaur, his then ex-girlfriend, from her workplace in March 2021 and then burying her alive in Moralana Creek, South Australia.
During sentencing submissions earlier this month, prosecutor Carman Matteo SC said Singh had killed the 21-year-old student as an "act of vengeance" or revenge after being rejected by her.
According to a report by The Tribune, the accused's father, Mohan Singh, a farmer, and mother, Jasvir Kaur, a housewife, shared that their son moved to Australia to study computer science at Unisa University in Adelaide – the same university that Jasmeen Kaur joined nearly a year later.
The Tribune quoted the parents, "The two came closer and wanted to get married. The girl tried her best to convince her parents for marriage but her mother, paternal uncle and aunt were strictly against it. The girl’s parents, being rich, did not agree to this relationship and rather pressured her to end her bonding with our son and marry the match they had selected for her. Our son went into depression. He had to take anti-depressant pills.”
They added that when Jasmeen's family tried to marry her off to someone else, she spiralled and attempted suicide by consuming poisonous pills. Their son stopped her from doing so, they maintained.
Further, they also claimed that the girl attempted suicide again and slit her throat, which led their son to attempt to escape the "assumed" blame by burying her body.
Recent reports indicated that Jasmeen Kaur's ex-boyfriend Tarikjot Singh bound her with cable ties and buried her alive in "an act of vengeance."
The court heard that the victim had experienced an "uncommon level of cruelty" following the abduction. She was found bound with tape and cable ties, and was buried alive by Singh when she was alive and unconscious.
Times of India reported that CCTV footage showed Singh purchasing gloves, cable ties and a shovel from a hardware store.
Singh now faces a mandatory life sentence with the court to impose a non-parole period in August.
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