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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Sam Elliott-Gibbs

Gran who arranged daughter-in-law's murder for wanting divorce is freed from jail

A grandmother who arranged the murder of her daughter-in-law because she wanted to divorce her son has been released from prison.

Bachan Kaur Athwal, from Hayes, west London, was jailed in 2007 for ordering the killing of 27-year-old Surjit Athwal.

She served less than 15 years in jail for the so-called honour killing in 1998 after the Parole Board granted her released.

Her freedom was secured despite unhappy Justice Secretary Dominic Raab's efforts to keep her behind bars.

The gran, now 86, discovered Mrs Athwal was having an affair and that she planned to leave her son.

Surjit Kaur Athwal was killed after her mother-in-law ordered her murder (central news)

As punishment for shaming the family, her enraged mother-in-law lured her to India and arranged for her to be killed, leaving her two young children without a mother.

Her body has never been found.

Incredibly, Athwal said she was proud of her actions and told sister-in-law Sarbjit what she had done, warning her that she would be next if she also stepped out of line.

Terrified for her life, she found the courage to tell the police and they secretly worked together to bring the twisted pensioner to justice.

She was freed from prison last August (Central News)
She told relatives she was proud of the killing (PA)

But the Parole Board had recommended last summer that the woman, who is said to be in poor health and suffering from dementia, should be released on licence.

They were later challenged by the Justice Secretary, who claimed she still posed a risk to society.

But Mr Raab's appeal was knocked back at the MailOnline report that she has been free since August.

It is claimed she is being looked after by family 'under certain restrictions'.

Sukhdave Athwal was also conviced (PA)

In May last year, it is claimed she slapped her daughter during a prison visit and assaulted a member of staff. The woman also twice attack a fellow in-mate, it is reported.

Medical assessments suggested elderly Athwal "would be difficult to manage in exactly the same way as any other person suffering from dementia and no more".

Speaking as part of the CI series Britian’s Darkest Taboos, Sarbjit Kaur Athwal revealed that she and her sister-in-law Surjit were forced into unhappy arranged marriage.

They lived a miserable life dominated by their overbearing mother-in-law.

Eventually, in 1998, Surjit took the decision to end her marriage.

After an eight year battle to collect enough evidence to bring them to justice, both Bachan and Sukhdave, who acted as an accomplice, were sentenced to life in prison for Surjit’s murder.

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