Brit India-origin woman convicted of murdering lover with poisoned curry

London, Feb 11(ANI): A 45-year-old India-origin woman, who killed her lover- 39-year-old Lakhvinder "Lucky" Cheema- by poisoning his curry, is facing a life sentence after being convicted of his murder.

Lakhvir Singh was said to have killed Cheema because she could not bear the thought of his marriage to 21-year-old Gurjeet Choongh on Valentine's Day last year.

It was alleged that Singh poisoned Cheema and Choongh, who became violently ill after eating leftover curry, which had been in the fridge of their home in Feltham, England.

Within hours, Cheema was dead and Choongh was fighting for her life after being poisoned with aconite, known as the Queen of Poisons.

The judge gave the jury, which had been considering its verdicts for four days, a majority direction in respect of a fourth charge, that Singh administered poison to Cheema the month before.

After her arrest, Singh, a mother of three, tried to blame her brother-in-law Varinder for the death, but a lodger at the house saw her take a container with the curry out of the fridge earlier in the day, the court heard.

Singh and Cheema had been having a secret affair for 16 years, but he decided to settle down and have children.

Singh's husband was being treated for cancer abroad and she claimed to police that Cheema had talked her out of divorcing him.

But she continued to text Cheema with love messages and tried to talk him out of marrying Choongh, whom he had only known for a few months.

"I knew she was jealous of my relationship with Lakhvinder. I told her not to interfere in our lives. I told her to forget everything that had gone on in the past. But she said 'I cannot forget the feelings that I have'. I tried to reason with her quite a lot, but it had no effect on her," The Telegraph quoted Choongh, as saying.

Investigating the case, police had found traces of the poison among herbs in Singh's coat pocket and in her handbag.

Edward Brown QC, prosecuting, said the couple had been "looking forward to a long and happy life together. That future happiness was cut short in a most terrible and cruel way."

"It was their very happiness and their intended future together that brought about the devastation that came to bear down upon them. Perhaps jealousy, anger and revenge all playing their part, Lakhvir Singh decided to poison them using an extremely toxic and deadly poison," he added. (ANI)