There their plan was discussed, while "deployment was finalised"
DPD worker Aurman Singh was brutally “executed” in broad daylight by a gang of masked thugs.
The 23-year-old was bludgeoned to death with an axe, golf club, wooden stave, metal bar, hockey stick, shovel, knife and cricket bat in Shrewsbury in August 2023.
Aurman had been chopped at with an axe, with the weapon plunging through his skull and exposing his brain.
His ear was “partially amputated”, his rib was cut in half. A loose piece of skull was later discovered within the body bag during his post-mortem.
The killers fled the scene in two cars but there was “little attempt to avoid detection”.
Some of the weapons were dumped just over a mile away from the scene.
One of the killers even recorded a “celebration video” and showed off two “blood-stained” weapons.
The killers may have “carefully planned” their murder – but their escape was foiled.
Less than two hours after the violent attack, four of Aurman’s killers were arrested in Black Country.
On April 12, 2024, Arshdeep Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Shivdeep Singh and Manjot Singh were jailed for life at Stafford Crown Court.
Four others are still wanted by police – Harpreet Singh, Arshdeep’s cousin Mehakdeep Singh, Harwinder Singh Turna and Sehajpal Singh.
But the killing would not have been possible if it had not been for the inside information handed over to them by a fifth man.
Sukhmandeep Singh worked with Aurman at DPD’s depot in Stoke-on-Trent, “betraying” his colleague and offering up details of his whereabouts to the culprits.
During a trial, he claimed he feared for his life and that of his new bride after receiving threats from convicted killer Arshdeep and his cousin Mehakdeep.
The pair were “desperate” to find Aurman and cause him some harm – and Sukhmandeep knew this, prosecutors say.
Prosecutor Simon Denison KC said: “He knew that at least Arshdeep and Mehakdeep were desperate to find Aurman that day in order to inflict violence upon him. He did nothing to stop it.”
On the day of the murder, Sukhmandeep had “unrestricted and unsupervised” access to the DPD Universal system. He used it to find out the route Aurman was set to take.
After the victim entered the depot in the early morning, Sukhmandeep was captured on camera taking a photograph of the DPD and its registration plate. This was then sent to the killers.
Without Sukhmandeep’s “contribution”, the violent plan could not have been carried out.
Philip Bradley, defending Sukhmandeep, said:
“This man caved in, effectively, through his own weakness, and on that basis, became involved.”
After receiving the relevant information, the killers gathered at Arshdeep’s Tipton home just before 9:50 am on August 21, 2023.
There their plan was discussed, while “deployment was finalised and weapons gathered”.
Judge Kristina Montgomery KC said each weapon was “carefully curated” and had a “legitimate purpose”, Judge Kristina Montgomery KC said.
Arshdeep – who was at the “centre of everything that happened” – travelled in an Audi with his three fellow convicted killers while the four wanted men were in the Mercedes.
This was so Arshdeep could “open an effective line of communication between the two vehicles and synchronise their movement”.
Both vehicles travelled “in convoy” to get fuel from Esso, in Dudley Port, Tipton, before stopping in the car park outside Castlefields Community Hub, Shrewsbury.
Another meeting in a car park to “finalise” arrangements took place, with CCTV footage capturing all men “standing together” for “several minutes” before leaving.
The four wanted men went into a nearby Morrisons Daily to reportedly grab some food.
Empty sandwich packets were later discovered by police in the Audi.
The cars were recorded arriving in Coton Mount, Shrewsbury, and spotted “waiting” at 12:06 pm.
Just after 1 pm, the DPD van driven by Aurman’s colleague pulled up on Berwick Avenue.
The Mercedes and Audi followed the van, parking directly behind it.
Aurman’s unsuspecting co-worker got out of the van to deliver a parcel, while he remained in the front passenger seat on the phone to a friend.
Judge Montgomery said: “He was totally unaware that the defendants and the other men who had been lying in wait for him were approaching as they had parked up directly behind the DPD van.”
Everyone apart from Shivdeep “jumped” out of the van and brutally attacked the DPD worker.
Judge Montgomery went on to say: “In the course of the attack, at the hands of others, he was stabbed in the back with such force that the knife cut through one of his ribs.
“It was an act plainly intended to kill him.”
As well as the murder sentences, Sukhmandeep Singh was convicted of manslaughter and was jailed for 10 years.
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