Businessman Cleared of Hiring Hitman to kill First Wife

Businessman Gurpreet Singh, aged 44, of Wolverhampton, has been cleared of attempting to arrange the £20,000 contract killing of his first wife.

A jury at Birmingham Crown Court had been deliberating for over 30 hours before finding Singh not guilty of soliciting the murder of Amandeep Kaur in 2013.

However, the jury is still deliberating over the second charge of murder against Singh, who was accused of murdering his second wife Sarbjit Kaur.

Amandeep was in India when she died, with the Punjab authorities concluding that she died of a brain haemorrhage.

However, it was alleged that Singh paid £20,000 to have someone kill her.

He allegedly offered to pay a man named Heera Singh Uppal to murder Amandeep between July and December 2013.

During the six-week trial, barrister David Mason QC said that the prosecution was “not in a position to say” Amandeep Kaur was murdered.

Her death certificate had said she died of a brain haemorrhage in Punjab, India in 2014.

However, Mr Mason said: “Clearly, Gurpreet Singh has a habit of not getting on with his wives.”

He said the jury would hear from Mr Uppal “that he (Singh) wanted his wife Amandeep Kaur murdered. And that he was prepared to pay Mr Uppal £20,000 to carry out this killing”.

Singh is said to have told Uppal to make it look “like a burglary gone wrong”. Mr Mason stated that the circumstances surrounding Sarbjit’s death were “startlingly familiar”.

Mr Uppal claimed Singh wanted his first wife dead “as he wanted to marry someone else – a student from India”.

Mr Uppal said he did not go through with the murder and also alleged he was “offered money, very recently, not to come to this trial”.

Mr Mason said: “The evidence, if true, is devasting.”

Singh had denied knowing or meeting Mr Uppal to plan the murder of his first wife.

On June 12, 2019, the businessman was found not guilty of soliciting his wife’s murder.

The Express and Star reported that while Singh has been cleared over one murder charge, the jury is still deliberating whether he is guilty of murdering his second wife.

On February 16, 2018, Singh allegedly murdered 38-year-old Sarbjit Kaur.

Sarbjit was found strangled to death in a sewing room at the couple’s home in Rookery Lane, Wolverhampton.

The court heard that the concrete company boss killed his second wife with the assistance of an “unknown accomplice”.

Police initially believed she was the victim of a botched burglary. Singh told police he had been alone in the house with his wife on the day of the incident.

The businessman claimed he had taken his children to school before returning home. He then left to go to work.

Singh returned home later that day to find his wife’s body in the sewing room as she worked as a seamstress.

Though Gurpreet Singh denied the murder, CCTV footage spotted a figure entering the gates of their home. The trial continues.