British Sikh MP beefs up security after receiving email saying 'watch your back'
London, Mar 5: Britain's first female Sikh Member of Parliament, Preet Kaur Gill, said she was forced to bolster her security after receiving a "direct threat" by email asking her to "watch your back".
Gill, 50, is the Opposition Labour MP for Birmingham, Edgbaston, and a frontbench politician as the shadow secretary of state for international development.
She told GB News' on Saturday that she worried for her family's safety as she went about her regular duties as an MP, holding "surgery" meetings with her local constituents.
"It was very direct. It is a worry because I'm with my daughters in the constituency all the time. My family live there. It really puts into context the kind of job that you do," she told the channel.
"This latest direct threat has worried me. As a woman, when you put yourself forward and you want to address injustices and you care about issues that affect your constituents, you're then faced with people that think it's OK to say this sort of stuff to you. I could not believe that this person used their place of work email to make that threat," she said.
"Normally most people would probably use an alias, or try different ways of sort of creating a hate campaign. I've had huge amounts of hate campaigns created against me through WhatsApp groups too," she added.
She revealed that she had informed West Midlands Police about the threat and uses a bodyguard for security.
"It's something I discuss with my team. I worry not just about my safety but about theirs. I don't want to restrict my surgeries, I don't want to go to an appointment-based system, I want to be able to be open and be in my community and make sure that people feel that they can have that access to myself," she noted.
Speaking of her ethnicity, the frontline politician said that being the first female Sikh MP in the UK Parliament can be "quite isolating" in terms of support.
"And so, sometimes I think that is really quite tough as a woman facing so much kind of hate and criticism when you are trying to do something good," she added.
In December 2021, Gill came under fire on social media over a tweet she later deleted that referred to a "Hindu terrorist" behind the act of violence at Golden Temple in Amritsar.
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
