"I would like to be there when it happens."
As Ramandeep Kaur Mann remains imprisoned on death row in India, her son says he is looking forward to watching her hang.
Mann was found guilty of murdering her husband Sukhjit Singh by lacing his biryani with sedatives and slitting his throat during a family holiday in India in 2016.
Mann, from Derby, was assisted by her lover Gurpreet Singh.
However, the murder was witnessed by her eldest son Arjun, who was nine at the time.
Now aged 17, Arjun was the key prosecution witness at Mann’s trial.
He said: “There are not many children who watch their mother kill their father and then give evidence about it.
“How do you try and get on with your life after something like this?
“I’ve had to be very brave and I’m proud of what I’ve done because I’ve got justice for my father.
“My brother and me don’t think of this woman as my mother anymore, she’s evil.
“We want nothing to do with her. As far as I’m concerned, she stopped being a mother to us the moment she murdered our father.”
Speaking about her death sentence, Arjun said:
“I would like to be there when it happens.
“It doesn’t fill me with fear, in fact, it would give me a lot of satisfaction and relief and I look forward to that day. I would like all my family to be there with me.
‘I would like to see with my own eyes that justice for my father has been served.
“She deserves to hang because she did such an evil thing she did.”
Arjun was in the UK when his mother’s death sentence was announced. She currently awaits capital punishment in Shahjahanpur District Jail.
He admitted: “I had a lot of mixed feelings when I heard about it.
“On one hand, I felt relief and that it was right. But I wasn’t happy because I’ve still lost my father, which makes me very sad.
“But I don’t have any sympathy for her because she’s never shown any remorse and has lied this whole time.”
Because he did not eat the sedative-laced biryani, Arjun was not unconscious and was awoken by the murder.
Recalling that night, he said:
“I was fast asleep and then I heard a banging noise. I looked up from under the sheet and my mum was on top of my dad smothering him with a pillow.
“Then Gurpreet, who I called ‘Uncle Mithu’ hit him over the head with a hammer.
“I remember the two of them then had a conversation saying ‘he’s still alive. We’ve got to finish him off’.
“My mum then took the knife and slit his throat.”
As he looked on, Arjun recalled:
“I was terrified that if I said something or tried to stop them, they might kill me. I was lying on my side under a sheet watching this horror happen.
“Out of pure fright I just lay there, I froze. I closed my eyes, and my heart was beating really fast.
“None of it felt real, I couldn’t understand what I’d just seen. I was so scared.”
Arjun hid under a sheet and the next thing he remembered was that it was morning. He rushed downstairs and told his grandmother that “something had happened” but was unable to tell her exactly what as he was accompanied by his mother.
Within an hour, police arrived.
But it was not until later that day that Arjun told his grandmother what he witnessed as Ramandeep Kaur Mann was being spoken to.
Since her arrest, Arjun and his brother have not spoken or communicated with their mother.
Mann’s affair with Gurpreet began during a family holiday to Dubai in 2015.
Arjun explained: “She’s written us letters, but we don’t even read them.
“We just tear them up and throw them in the bin.
“Why would we want anything to do with a woman who has taken our father away from us?’
‘We’d had a lovely holiday to Dubai and as far as I knew, Mithu was my uncle and a family friend.
“I was nine at the time, I had no idea what was going on. Both he and my mother have betrayed us.”
One of the most challenging moments was when Arjun travelled to India to give evidence against his mother.
“She just stared straight ahead and never said anything to me and I was trying not to make eye contact with her.
“I felt quite scared because it wasn’t easy to stand in court and tell them what happened. It took a lot of courage, but my family were with me, and I felt supported and loved by them.”
Arjun is currently doing his A-Levels and aspires to be an engineer. His brother Aaron is now aged 13 and at secondary school.
Following the murder, the boys were at the centre of a legal battle as their mother’s family tried to get custody of them.
But a court eventually ruled that it should be awarded to their paternal uncle and aunt, Kuldip Singh and Kulwinder Kaur. They live with them in a seven-bedroom home in the Midlands.
Businessman Kuldip said: “Given what they’ve gone through the boys are doing incredibly well.
“They work hard at school and are very polite and well-balanced.
“They are a credit to their father, and we believe that out of this horrible tragedy, we’ve received two gifts. They are our shining stars.
“But we don’t want Arjun and Aaron to be stigmatised in any way. It’s not that we’re ashamed of what’s happened but we are very protective over them so that they can lead normal, happy lives.’
His wife Kulwinder added: “We raised two sons of our own, who are now in their late 20s and thought we were free of parenting responsibilities.
“But when my brother was killed, we had to step up for his boys. We feel blessed that they have come into our lives.”
Speaking about fond memories with his father, Arjun added:
“We used to love going mountain biking and working together around the house.
“My dad also loved his cars, he owned two BMWs and a Mercedes, and I had a lot of fun driving around in them with him. I wanted to be like him when I grew up.
“He was a really good dad and I miss him a lot.
“I’ll never forget the wonderful memories I have of him but as sad as it is, me and my brother are lucky to have found a new mum and dad.”
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