Killing Mum & Dad: The Murder of Jasbir Kaur & Rupinder Bassan

In February 2020, on the quiet streets of Oldbury, West Midlands, a gruesome double murder unfolded, leaving a community shattered and a family irrevocably torn apart.

It surrounds Anmol Chana, the 26-year-old son of Jasbir Kaur and stepson to Rupinder Bassan. 

It is a story that delves into the depths of human darkness, examining the signs that went unheeded, the violence that erupted within a family’s walls, and the chilling aftermath.

This shocking incident was retold by Jasbir’s daughter and Anmol’s sister, Kiran, in the Sky Crime series Killing Mum and Dad. 

As we journey through this chilling narrative, we will uncover the series of events that led to the fateful day when Anmol’s pent-up rage couldn’t be contained.

Through Kiran’s words, lawyer testimonies, and professional opinions, we will explore this frightening story of the murder that changed a community forever. 

A Tough Upbringing

Before diving into the crime, it’s important to understand Anmol’s upbringing and the type of environment he and his family existed in. 

Jasbir was originally born in a small village in Punjab, India.

As the baby of the family, she was pampered and eventually moved to the UK in 1993 after marrying her first husband.

Before living in Oldbury, Jasbir and her partner lived in Northampton. However, it was anything but a happy marriage. 

Kiran explains: 

“What started off being an okay marriage became…quite abusive.”

“It started off with just verbal abuse, from what I remember my mum telling me, to then her falling pregnant with my brother, and things after that got worse.

“I think that’s when the physical abuse started.

“It was horrifically controlling, abusive, it was a very unhealthy environment to be in for all three of us, and we couldn’t do anything about it.

“She did the best she could possibly for both my bother and I, given the circumstances we were in.

“Most people would probably not run away, because they think they would be far, far worse off by running away than staying in a place that is abusive.”

Kiran describes her mum as a “very strong person” who would do “everything for her family”.

And it was ultimately this strength that led to Jasbir running away from this torrid relationship and seeking support elsewhere. Kiran goes on to say: 

“We ended up moving to the refuge. It’s a place where you’ve got loads of families.

“We went to a women’s refuge so there were hardly any guys, it was women and children from domestic abuse backgrounds.

“I think the problem was you’re trying to attend school at such a young age, but your home life is not normal.

“You don’t really have a home. So I think that was really working on like all of our minds. I think my mum in particular.

“She enrolled in college to try and learn English, so she could get a job and be able to look after us.

“At that point, we eventually got a council house. So, that’s probably the first step of kind of becoming stable.”

Although the family had already been through difficult times, Jasbir’s perseverance and courage resulted in her kids having a roof over their heads and food on the table.

Jasbir even started to learn English which illustrates the type of dedication she had to make sure she could always protect her children. 

The Early Signs of Trouble

Arguably, each member of the Chana family had a hard life growing up. 

Jasbir suffered horrid abuse and was trying to survive as a single parent and her kids were exposed to a toxic household that they didn’t understand. 

However, it seemed Anmol was affected by this cruelty the most. 

Jason Pitter KC, the prosecutor in the trial, outlined Anmol’s behaviour during his teen years: 

“The violence, when it started, was towards his mother.

“It began with aggressive language, swearing, threatening her.”

“The general picture within the family was one there was apprehension, if not fear at times, of how he was capable of behaving.”

Kiran added this by explaining how odd her brother’s behaviour could be: 

“It was weird because my brother had two sides to him.

“One day he was perfectly fine, and the next day, I would be on the receiving end of quite horrible abuse from him.

“It seemed like we were doing well.

“I was doing well in school, I had friends at school, but on the inside, things were kind of still falling apart, and we didn’t really know what to do about it.”

So in an urgent move to get the help she thought Anmol needed, Jasbir visited the GP to see what resources were available. 

Kiran recounts this story and confirms her brother was referred to a counsellor. Recounting this story, she shared: 

“We were there waiting for a meeting and my brother had gone and locked himself in the toilets and just refused to come out.

“He wouldn’t listen to what she was saying, he was kind of quite happy to just kick or bang on the cubicle.

“The counsellors witnessed all of this and thought he was quite a naughty child.

“Even some of the other children that had come in that were deemed to be naughty, my brother was apparently far worse.”

Anmol had a troubled history, and despite his mother and sister trying to help, he was marked by violent tendencies.

Although Jasbir’s GP did another referral for Anmol, it was to no avail for the worrying parent. And, things started to become increasingly violent. 

Troubling Abuse

It was getting increasingly harder to control Anmol’s behaviour and predict his emotions. 

Both Jasbir and Kiran were finding it hard to restrain him and they started to worry more with each passing day. Kiran expresses: 

“We ended up sleeping in the same bedroom, and we put furniture in front of the door just so he couldn’t get in.

“From then on it was like constantly like that. It was like walking on eggshells.”

However, one night proved too much for the mother and daughter to bear: 

“We ended up calling the police.

“They turned up and we threw the keys down through the window to the police so they could get in the door and kind of reprimand him so it was safe to come out of the room.

“And my mum at that point was like, ‘please don’t arrest him, because he needs help’.”

Jason Pitter added to Kiran’s words and dived in further about the type of abuse that Anmol would inflict on his family: 

“He made a direct threat to his mother that he was going to burn the house down and that he wanted to stab his mother.

“He had become increasingly aggressive, such that he wasn’t able to live at home.”

Jasbir decided to resort to her last option, which was to call her children’s biological father, a man who subjected her to years of abuse, and asked if Anmol could live with him. 

She had no other options which emphasises the extent of Anmol’s actions. But, she thought this would be better than him being in a hostel or on the streets. 

But the violence continued and the new environment did anything but help Anmol. Pitter further says:

“On a number of occasions, he had been violent to his father, that included threatening his father with a knife.

“On another occasion, he held his father in a chokehold.

“And it reached a point where his father could no longer have him living in the house with him.”

It seemed like nothing could be done to save Anmol from this destructive period. 

Rgeardless of his mother straining all the avenues she could access, she ultimately had to bring Anmol back home. 

However, Kiran was already at her wits end about the situation and wanted to cut off any ties with her brother.

She told her mum that she didn’t want anything to do with Anmol anymore. But, things went pear-shaped, Kiran says: 

“So things went wrong from there and my brother ended up having some form of an allergic reaction and ended up in hospital.

“He wasn’t doing very well. So my mum basically asked me, ‘are you okay with him moving back home?’.

“I still cared about my brother and I did genuinely worry about his health and well-being and safety, but that was really conflicted with my mum being alone in the house with him.”

As Kiran started university, her brother was also continuing with his life. The pair stopped communicating and it seemed there was some calmness among the family. 

A Period of Love

Since their birth, the only thing Kiran and Anmol have known is abuse and turmoil. 

Their mother tried to rectify this as much as possible by working hard and supporting them no matter what. After all, the kids had nothing else.

But, Jasbir was lonely. Normally in South Asian households, divorce is a taboo, and remarrying is normally seen in a negative light.

However, for Jasbir, finding Rupinder Bassan was the chance to start fresh:

“My mum basically said to one of the aunties that she was ready to start dating.

“She was like, like, ‘I know of a guy who has also said the same thing now, and is looking for a partner’ and put them in touch with each other.

“They had a date, it went really well, and they started seeing each other more and more.

“My mum was really open of me and my brother and what happened in her life and what my brother was exactly like.

“He then said, ‘I am fine with that’ and took interest in wanting to help.

“My stepdad, which I should say, I call him dad, he’s one of the nicest people I’ve met and just so perfect for my mum.

“Asian weddings are usually really big but both my parents decided that’s not what they wanted.

“It was so much better just having the two of them, having me, their witnesses.

“I was kind of like ‘ok right, my mum is gonna be ok in life. She’ll get to grow old with someone rather than alone’.

“My brother was actually invited to the wedding but didn’t want to go, and I think both of them at the same time wanted my brother there.

“He didn’t actually care enough to want to attend the wedding.”

It’s an ode to Jasbir and Rupinder that they wanted Anmol at the wedding, even though they knew the risk it could pose. 

Even though he didn’t show up, the pair still cared for him and wanted to carry on helping. 

They gave Anmol an ultimatum, they wanted him to have his freedom.

So, they gave him three months to find a job and if he couldn’t hold one down, he would move back in with them.

Rupinder helped in securing an interview for Anmol at the petrol station. But, he merely showed up to the station and then left. Kiran retells: 

“My brother had gone to the interview, or rather he’d just turned up at the petrol station, and didn’t go for the interview.

“He said ‘it’s not a safe place for me to work at. An explosion could happen at any point and I could die’.

“So I think at that point, my parents were really struggling to find him help.”

Even though the situation was tough, Jasbir and Rupinder bought new furniture in preparation for when Anmol was to move in with them.

They were quite excited and invited Kiran to spend some time with them. She explains: 

“I hadn’t spoken to him since September 2019 and it’s now February 2020.

“It’s really weird because when I saw my brother, we had the most normal conversation I think I’ve ever had with him.

“We were talking about normal day-to-day things and not anything bizarre or weird.

“So this just made my parents really happy. But it also reminded me of the nice side of my brother that I knew he had but I had not seen in years, since he was a teenager.

“My mum ended up saying to him ‘do you want to spend the night’ and the same thing to me.

“I would have actually said yes, but I didn’t because I wasn’t feeling that great.

“So I arranged for my dad to drop me back home.

“The last conversation I had with him was him saying, ‘okay do you wanna let your mum know that you’ve got home?’.

“So I got in and rang my mum and said ‘I hope you’re okay’. She was like, ‘okay, I love you. I’ll message you tomorrow’.”

The aggressive acts and tension had seemed to level out, and it appeared that the Chana family was on the right track.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.

The car ride with Rupinder and the phone call with Jasbir were the last interactions Kiran would have with her parents. 

The Investigation Starts

On February 22, 2020, a heated argument erupted at the family’s residence on Moat Road.

However, this was unknown to everyone, including Kiran. Although more details would be revealed later, Kiran retells the days after February 22:

“I ended up sleeping to like 1 p.m. or something. And at that point, I was thinking, why hasn’t either of my parents phoned me?

“Both parents were the type of parents that if they say they were going to do something they would do it.

“But it got around to like 3 p.m. and I still had heard absolutely nothing.

“I decided to try calling them a few more times. But at this point the difference was at least with my mum’s phone, it was ringing during my calls earlier in the day, but now it wasn’t.

“I’m kind of panicking and I’m thinking what should I do next?

“At that point, I rang the police. And if I didn’t have the background history with my brother, the police probably couldn’t have done anything.

“But because I said to them, ‘this is what my worry is’, they were obligated to do a well-being check.

“I think I already knew something really bad had happened.

“I came to two conclusions, either that my brother was keeping them hostage somewhere, or my brother had actually murdered my parents.”

Kiran’s words show the extent of how aggressive Anmol was.

If she already had an inkling that her brother was involved in something bad, then it explains the type of fear she and her mother must’ve endured for years. 

The police started to gather a team to check on the well-being of Jasbir and Rupinder. Kiran shared they also wanted permission to do a forced entry, which she granted.

Then, a few days after February 22, Kiran stated: 

“It got to around half four in the morning and we heard a knock on the door.

“And even before I opened the door, I turned around to my friend and I said ‘they’ve found my parents and they’re probably dead’.

“I said to ‘I’ve known something bad has happened since Sunday because the situation is so abnormal. Combined with the fact that my brother’s been involved with us since Saturday’.

“I asked [the police] straight away ‘have you found my brother yet?’. 

“I knew it was my brother who was responsible.”

“I had already said to the two police officers who came to see me, ‘if you find my parents dead, it will be my brother’. 

It was later learned that a police officer looked through the letterbox of Jasbir and Rupinder’s home and the scene was described as something out of a “Stephen King novel”.

There were blood splatters across the hallway and walls, and also streaks of blood across the floor.

As officers gained entry to the house, they found the bodies of Jasbir and Rupinder in the living room.

Their murder was gruesome and horrifying. 

The police quickly arrested Anmol Chana at his council house in Smethwick after forcing entry. 

Via police footage, you can see officers at the bottom of the stairs chanting for Anmol to appear. He strikes a fragile figure, walking gingerly down the steps claiming he was in bed. 

His behaviour resembled a person trying to act innocently, which was more worrying to see considering the crime he committed a few days prior. 

The Cold-Blooded Aftermath: A Chilling Sequence of Events

As Anmol was held in custody, a trial would soon be set in front of a jury. 

Kiran was a witness, therefore prosecutors and the police were unable to tell her exactly what had happened to her parents until after the trial had ended. 

However, the media, witnesses and professionals involved in the trial were able to detail what had happened. 

Speaking on this story when it first broke was journalist Rangzeb Hussain, who said: 

“This particular case really, really made me pause.

“The fact that it was parricide, the fact that a son had killed his mother and his stepfather.

“That made me reread the press release over and over just to let it sink in.

“I went to Oldbury and I spoke to people and the general feedback was shock, like it hasn’t happened.

“People were still coming to terms as if this thing had been printed, it was in the news, but somehow it wasn’t real.

“When people spoke to me, it was with apprehension, shock, and denial.”

During the trial, the prosecutors claimed Chana visited Birmingham City Hospital for treatment of his hand.

In his police interviews, Anmol claimed he had been “bitten severely on his thumb”. 

He used this as an excuse to claim self-defense.

Anmol said to the police that it was Rupinder who approached him with a knife, and he ended up retaliating to defend himself and that’s what led to the murder. 

However, this was not the case at all. 

The Crown Court’s barrister explained: 

“Mrs. Kaur had in excess of 20 stab injuries to her front, back, and to her hands where she was trying, we allege, to defend herself – the wounds cutting into bone.”

Prosecutor Jason Pitter added: 

“Mr. Bassan also had more than 20 injuries, including one penetrating bone and the heart, sufficient to kill, one right through his arm, and a gaping injury to his neck, cutting the carotid artery and jugular vein, bisecting the spine.”

Adding to the prosecution was Detective Inspector Hannah Whitehouse from West Midlands Police. She revealed: 

“Having murdered these two people in cold blood he then stole money from them, took their car and stole that as well, and then used that money to try to buy a plane ticket and leave the country.

“In amongst that he went for a drink in a pub and made phone calls to escorts as well, and that just really compounds the violence of the crime by virtue of its lack of remorse.”

As the investigation unfolded, evidence suggested that Anmol had meticulously planned an escape from the UK.

Police confiscated his phone and found out that he booked a plane ticket to Italy via Turkey and created a chilling reminder list, including entries such as “rob a Lidl” and “buy a new knife.”

Within his phone, investigators also found spine-tingling messages he had sent to other family members about his mum.  One text from 2017 reads:

“Man, I want to knife her or pour boiling oil down her throat, (put) her head in a chip pan.”

While another said:

“I could just hurt her and Kiran just to prove to her nothing can save them from where they are going.

“Even though she thinks she’s safe from the consequences just because she thinks the police can protect her from me.”

A third message revealed: “She’s asking for trouble big time bro.”

Other messages also outlined that “Jasbir is a dead b*tch” and he “felt like stabbing Jasbir”.

But other, more complex texts, detailed the troubled relationship Anmol had with his mother: 

“Just like she was sl*t when I was a kid she is exactly the same sl*t now only now she is on her f*cking high horse.”

And a fifth message says reads:

“You know she doesn’t want me to enjoy my life, trying everything she can to f*ck my life up.”

These actions further highlighted the cold-blooded nature of the crime.

As she was unable to hear all the statements and evidence being given, Kiran was feeling even more anxious and depressed.

But, she finally got her chance to see Anmol in court as she took the stand. Speaking on this moment and the feelings leading up to it, Kiran stated: 

“I guess my mental health slightly declined, in the sense that I would just carry on reliving what happened on the Saturday, my last day with my parents.

“And then on top of that, my brain would come up with my own versions of what had happened to my parents.

“I wasn’t able to sit on any of the previous court hearings that they had in prep for trial because I was on the witness list.

“In the morning I was taken to court and I was kept in the witness room.

“I remember thinking, ‘I just wanna see his face’. I wanted to see what was going on in his head.

“I can remember him just boring his eyes at me, like staring me down. And it almost looked like borderline hatred.

“To this day, I think he saw and still thinks I’m the reason he’s been arrested.

“When I did find out exactly how they were killed, it didn’t really surprise me at all.

“When the jury was released to go deliberate, I knew the trial was coming to a close, but you start thinking of the worst-case scenario.

“Even though it’s highly unlikely that they were gonna come back with a ‘not guilty’ vote, it still played on my mind.

“And that was a very, very scary thought to have. I don’t think I would have been safe if my brother was found not guilty.”

After a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, where Chana had pleaded not guilty, the jury deliberated for approximately three hours before coming back with their verdict.

The Verdict

On August 21, 2020, the jury unanimously found Anmol Chana guilty on both charges of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 36 years. 

Speaking on the verdict, Pitter said that Anmol had a “fascination with knives” since 16 years old, and the police had to be called “on several occasions” due to these violent tendencies. 

Inspector Whitehouse added her thoughts to the verdict: 

“Chana carried out a despicable crime against his family in their own home which should have been a place of safety.

“Our investigation revealed that Chana was fanatical about knives and had previously expressed a desire to kill his mother.

“Sadly we do not know what led him to carry out such a vicious and sickening attack.

“My thoughts remain with the couple’s wider family and friends.

“I can’t imagine how they are feeling; the shock and pain that his actions have caused will stay with them forever.

“I hope the guilty verdict today provides them with some comfort.

“Knife crime is devastating and this case has been a harsh reminder of the tragic consequences.”

Speaking on her parents’ tragic murder and her brother going to prison, Kiran expressed: 

“I remember just holding my breath until the verdict was read out.

“And then as soon as I heard it, there was so much relief.”

Kiran expressed deep sorrow that her parents’ lives had been abruptly ended by someone they loved dearly.

Although Anmol was punished for his despicable crimes, Kiran and Jasbir both reached out to professionals to seek help with this troubled figure.

Their pleads were mostly ignored despite the police being aware of his wild behaviour. 

In Killing Mum and Dad, psychologist and criminologist Dr Amanda Holt states these murders could have been avoided:

“In this case, there are a number of serious red flags which should have been responded to.

“First of all, the threats to kill should always be taken seriously.

“Secondly, the frequency and severity of the violence should have been taken seriously.

“And finally, the level of emotional disturbance in the perpetrator required intervention.”

Kiran added to this: 

“I was super angry at my brother but I was also angry at everyone that hadn’t listened to us up until this point.

“The fact that he actually did what he said he was gonna do and no one took that seriously.

“It’s exactly how he said he would kill us. And, my dad almost took my place, that’s how it always seems like.”

She also criticised her brother for trying to defame their memory in court to protect himself, leaving her with painful daily reminders and a future without her parents’ guidance.

For Kiran, the murder of both her parents is a void that cannot be filled.

But, even though the verdict would have been some mild closure from this frightening ordeal, she did a tribute to Jasbir and Rupinder: 

“My parents were the most loving people I’ve ever known.”

“My mum went through hell and kept going to look after me and my brother. She’s the toughest woman I know.

“My dad was the perfect match for her. He was that person who was able to give my mum the space and warmth to relax and be loved in the way we all deserve.

“I am sad that their lives were ended so quickly without a second thought by a person whom they both loved dearly.

“Their lives together had just started. 

“The only comfort I have from any of this is that at least my parents are at peace together.

“Two beautiful souls eternally together. And that I’ll always love them.”

The murder of Jasbir Kaur and Rupinder Bassan remains a haunting and traumatic event, forever etched in the memories of their family and the community.

Anmol Chana’s actions, driven by a dark fascination with knives and violence, left a trail of devastation that serves as a stark reminder of the tragic consequences of such crimes.

The wounds inflicted on those who loved the victims will take a lifetime to heal, as the search for understanding and closure continues.