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LONDON, May 10 (PTI) — Two teenagers found guilty of murdering an innocent 16-year-old Afghan Sikh refugee in London whom they wrongly believed belonged to rival gangs were sentenced to life in prison by a British court on Wednesday. .
Vanushan Balakrishnan and Ilyas Suleiman, both 18, were accused of murdering Rishmeet Singh in “cold blood” in March following their trial at London’s Old Bailey Court.
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In a televised sentencing hearing in the same court, Judge Sarah Munro described the case as “tragic” as she sentenced Balakrishnan to a minimum of 24 years and Suleiman to a minimum of 21 years before being considered for parole.
“This case is all the more tragic because Rishmeet was a completely innocent victim,” the judge said.
“He was described as a good guy who wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was never involved in any kind of violence. It’s unbelievable that you two asked him to kill him,” she said.
Rishmeet Singh, who had come to the UK in October 2019 with his mother and grandmother, had sought asylum from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, during his trial.
His father had been killed by the Taliban six months before that, shortly after they tried to kidnap Rishmeet – forcing the family to flee to the UK.
In a statement, Rishmeet’s mother Gulinder said: “Rishmeet is my only child and his whole life has been waiting for him. No words can explain or describe how I feel since Rishmeet was taken from us. He grew up with so much love and now he’s gone. I’m having a hard time understanding how and why this happened to my baby boy. I feel like I’ve lost everything and my life is over.
“I will never lose him this way. I won’t see him grow up. I won’t see him leave college. I won’t see him get his wish. I won’t see him learn to drive. I’m not going to see him fall in love and get married. I’m not going to be a grandmother and watch my son grow old. I’ve been deprived of so much of the future.”
She revealed that her son is attending university to complete a public service course and his ambition is to become a police officer to help people.
“Rishmeet was loved by everyone who knew him, he was a faithful boy with a very caring nature. I lost my husband and now I have lost my only child, my son. Justice has finally been done for Rishmeet , but their sentence will never be enough for me. They have taken my life and Rishmeet will never come home again,” Gulinder added.
The court heard that in November 2021, Richmidt had just left his friends and was walking home from a fun evening in a park in Southell, west London, when he saw two An unknown male ran towards him.
Rishmeet immediately ran back to his friend and yelled “Run, run” before he tripped. One of his pursuers then stabbed him in the back at least five times.
Seconds later, a second male also stabbed Rishmeet — at least 10 times. His attackers then fled, leaving his bloodied and wounded body lying on the ground.
Detectives from the Met Police Specialist Crime Command launched a murder investigation and immediately began gathering evidence, including an extensive CCTV investigation, to trace Rishmeet’s movements before and after the attack.
After investigation, Balakrishnan and Suleiman, who were only 17 years old at the time of the attack, were arrested on suspicion of murder in December 2021 and have now been convicted.
“Rishmeet is an innocent 16 year old boy whose whole life has been waiting for him. He has just spent a fun evening with his friends when he is mercilessly chased by Balakrishnan and Suleiman and killed with a knife , he was walking home,” said Detective Inspector Laura Semple from the Metropolitan Police’s Professional Crime Command at the time. their beliefs.
Police said the two teenagers stabbed Singer 15 times while he was “lying defenseless on the floor”.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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