Gurpreet Singh: Jury fails to reach verdict on alleged Wolverhampton wife murder
The jury in the murder trial of a Wolverhampton businessman accused of strangling his wife at their home has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict.
But the Crown said that it will be seeking a retrial of building company boss Gurpreet Singh over the death of his wife Sarbjit Kaur.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court had been considering the evidence for 10 days, after it was alleged Singh had killed Sarbjit at their family home in Rookery Lane, Penn, on February 16 last year.
After they were discharged David Mason QC, prosecuting, told the judge yesterday the Crown will be seeking a retrial.
The seven women and three men of the jury had already unanimously acquitted Singh on Wednesday of offering to pay £20,000 to a would-be hit-man to kill his previous spouse Amandeep Kaur in 2013.
She died a year later during a trip to India, with authorities in the Punjab concluding she had suffered a brain haemorrhage.
During the trial, the jury heard how father-of-two Singh, 44, allegedly strangled 38-year-old seamstress Sarbjit between 8.15am and 9am after dropping his children at school and before leaving for work then allegedly tried to make it look like a break-in.
But Singh, of Coalway Road, Penn, denied the charge and said he had suffered “mentally, physically and financially” since being charged by police.
The trial also heard that a slight figure in a parka jacket was seen on CCTV approaching and leaving the property at the time Sarbjit is said to have been murdered but has never been traced.
The jury’s deliberations were paused for several days.
