India-origin man who killed wife for gay lover jailed for life in UK
London, Dec 5: An Indian-origin pharmacist was sentenced to life imprisonment by a UK court on Wednesday for murdering his wife to use a two-million pound life insurance payout to build a new life with his gay lover in Australia.
Mitesh Patel, 37, was told that he must serve a minimum term of 30 years behind bars before being considered for parole over the murder of Jessica Patel, who was found dead at the couple's home in Middlesbrough, northern England, in May.
He had denied killing his wife and claimed that she was a victim of a burglary at their home.
However, the prosecution proved that Patel staged a burglary scene after injecting his 34-year-old wife with insulin and then strangling her with a plastic supermarket shopping bag.
"You have no remorse for your actions. Any pity you have is for yourself," said Justice James Goss, during a sentencing hearing at Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday.
In a statement on behalf of Jessica's family, her grieving younger sister Divya told the court: "The one thing we hope and prayed for above anything else was that in her final moments she did not suffer".
"The cruel reality is that she did in fact suffer, she knew exactly who her killer was, and he mercilessly ignored her attempts to fight for her own life as he ended it.
"We can only imagine the fear and panic she must have felt knowing herself this was it. Thinking of that moment makes our hearts so heavy," she said.
According to court reports, she then addressed her brother-in-law directly to say that her sister would finally be free of him 'forever'.
"As will she rest in heaven, you will rot in hell," she said, adding that he could have divorced her, taken everything he wanted but did not have to take her life.
"He had no right to take this evil, cruel and malicious step," Divya said.
During the trial, it emerged that the accused had planned to claim a two-million pound (USD 2.5 million) life insurance payout and move to Sydney with lover Dr Amit Patel, described as his "soulmate".
The couple had plans to use Jessica's frozen embryos to then have a baby. Prosecutors said Mitesh's motivation for the murder was to escape his strict Hindu upbringing and flee the UK to be with his lover in Australia and start a new family.
The jury was told that his wife had been aware for six years that her husband was in love with another man and was having casual sex with men he met on the gay dating app Grindr.
The judge described Mitesh as a "selfish" man, whose lies were uncovered by police on examination of the iPhone health app, which tracks any user's steps throughout the day, on his and his wife's phones.
The jury heard the cheating husband had made internet searches dating back years, including "I need to kill my wife", "insulin overdose", "plot to kill my wife, do I need a co-conspirator?", "hiring hitman UK" and "how much methadone will kill you?".
In July 2015, he told his Sydney-based lover Amit: "Her days are marked."
On Tuesday, a jury of six men and six women took three hours of deliberation to give their guilty verdict.
Jessica was found at her home on The Avenue in Linthorpe suburb of Middlesbrough with "serious injuries" and pronounced dead at the scene on May 14.
The victim, also known as Jess, ran the local chemist's shop on Roman Road in Middlesbrough with her husband, whom she met while studying at university in Manchester.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
