NRI gets 21 yrs for murdering sons in Scotland

London, Jan 22: A Non-Resident Indian (NRI) was sentenced to 21 years by a London court for murdering his two children before setting the bodies on fire. 46-year-old Ashok Kalyanjee slit the throats of sons Paul (6) and Jay (2), in his car at a spot in the Campsie Fells and then tried to torch the vehicle with himself and his victims inside.

Lord Brailsford of High Court while sentencing Kalyanjee said, "this is as grave a crime as can be imagined. This crime was premeditated, planned, organised. You used deceit and lies to persuade the children's mother and the children to go out with you that afternoon. You purchased the murder weapon in advance and acquired petrol," the judge added.

Kalyanjee who was born in India, has been in United Kingdom since 1991. He married Scottish Giselle Ross in 2001 and the couple divorced in 2004. Lord Brailsford added that the victims were defenceless. And there was no doubt that they loved Kalyanjee and assumed that he would take care of them as a father should.

One of the victims witnessed what happened to his brother. I cannot imagine the suffering he must have endured. There is no mitigation for a crime of this enormity," Lord Brailsford said.

When the sentence was pronounced Kalyanjee showed no emotion. But his ex-wife Ross reportedly yelled at him in the court. She screamed, "They were my babies. They never even loved you anyway."

Paul and Jay was murdered by Kalyanjee on May 3, 2008 at a car park in the Campsie Fells near Lennoxtown, north of Glasgow. Reports suggest that the children did not want to spend time with him, but he lured them with promises of toys. Kalyanjee then reportedly bought a large kitchen knife. Before the murder he phoned his ex-wife and said, "your babies are fine." Then before hanging up, he added, "You'll regret what you did to me in this life."

Kalyanjee used a tap machine to record a chilling last message in Punjabi, "these children are mine and they go with me.The death is near." He then killed Jay infront of Paul, then poured petrol inside the care and set fire. But the fire did not destroy the car. He collapsed in the car and was in intensive care unit for almost six weeks with burns.

Paul McBride, Kalyajee's lawyer appealed to the court that the man loved his sons and found it 'difficult to understand' what he had done. In his 345 page diary Kalyanjee has wrote about how he was treated in Scotland before committing murders. "He described himself being racially attacked, racially abused and excluded from the family of his children. He felt he didn't want his children to be brought up in that sort of society," said McBride.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)