Indian-origin man accused of killing 4 family members returns to US court
Darpan News Desk IANS, 07 Jun, 2023 02:22 PM
New York, June 7 (IANS) A 40-year-old Indian-origin man accused of killing his wife and three of her family members in 2019 appeared in a US county court for a pretrial hearing with his third defence team, a media report said.
Gurpreet Singh, a former truck driver who faces the death penalty if convicted, is presently housed in the Butler County Jail in Ohio without bond, the Journal-News, an Ohio-based daily, reported.
Singh, currently on trial for the four murders that took place at a West Chester apartment in 2019, appeared in a Butler County courtroom on Tuesday with his new attorneys.
Judge Greg Howard, who had set the trial for April 29, 2024 in February this year, said on Tuesday "that trial date will go forward".
The attorneys requested a second pretrial hearing on August 1.
With nearly two weeks of testimony and 14 hours of deliberation, the first trial in October 2022 did not reach a verdict.
Singh is charged with four counts of aggravated murder for allegedly shooting and killing his wife Shalinderjit Kaur, his in-laws, Hakikat Singh Pannag and Parmjit Kaur, and his aunt-in-law, Amarjit Kaur.
The prosecutors had told the court that Singh murdered his family by shooting them all in the head due to strained relationship with in-laws over money from land owned in India.
Arguing his innocence, the defence team at the first trial said the killings were part of a professional hit due to Pannag's financial woes and a dubious land contract deal in India with the "land mafia", the daily reported.
The defence told the court that three masked men broke into the apartment with baseball bats, and Singh ran for his life.
When he returned, everyone was dead.
However, the defence presented very little evidence to support this theory.
Two Indian men in Florida are facing fraud charges for conning a 69-year-old woman by swindling $80,000 from her over the phone, police said. Parth Patel, 33, and Jayarami Kuruguntla, 25, were both arrested and booked into the Marion County Jail.
Dipti Patel moved to Bolton from London when she became the head of physical education at Manchester Academy in Moss Side in 2018, The Bolton News reported. She was then referred to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) by the Manchester Academy.
Srinivasa Murthy Jonnalagadda, who did not know how to swim, was enjoying with his family at Panther Beach in Santa Cruz last week when the tragedy struck, according to a fundraiser set up by family and friends seeking help.
Nikhil M. Durgude, 25, pleaded guilty on Thursday to eight charges including one for voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty. Also charged with possessing cannabis and consuming methamphetamine, Nikhil is expected to be sentenced on June 16.
Born to Indian immigrants who came to the US in the 1980's, Patel was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021 to serve in his administration as a Liaison for the White House. He has also served as a Law Clerk for the Department of Justice Criminal Division in the Public Integrity Section fighting corruption, and bribery.
A 21 year-old Indian-origin student was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Philadelphia, a media report said. Jude Chacko, hailing from Kerala's Kollam district, was gunned down while he was returning from work on Sunday (local time), Khaleej Times reported. His parents migrated to the US more than 30 years ago.
