Lakhvir Singh – ‘The Curry Killer’
On 27 January 2009, Lakhvinder Cheema, 39, sat down to eat dinner at his home in West London with his fiancee Gurjeet Choough, who was 22. They had leftover curry from the night before.
Just a few hours later, Lakhvinder Cheema was dead, and his fiancee was fighting for her life in a coma.
Lakhvinder Cheema had called 999 after they both began to experience pins and needles, vomiting, and were unable to walk. During the call, he claimed that it was his ex-girlfriend who had poisoned him.
Lakhvinder Cheema managed to get family members to take him and Gurjeet Choough to the hospital. Unfortunately, he died in hospital.
To stop the same fate befalling his fiancee, doctors placed Gurjeet Choough into a medically induced coma, and suspecting that the couple had been poisoned, worked on flushing the poison from her body.
A week later, Gurjeet Choough had made a full recovery. Lakhvinder Cheema had died because he had ingested more poison via a second helping of the leftover curry.
But who would do this? Who wanted to bring harm to the newly engaged couple?
Turns out it was pretty obvious to investigators. Lakhvir Singh, 40, was arrested within a few hours of Lakhvinder’s death.
The motive? Lakhvir Singh was jealous. A scorned lover. She had been having an affair with Cheema for the past 15 years. The two would spend time together whilst her husband travelled to India.
Throughout their 15-year relationship Lakhvir Singh had fallen pregnant twice, already a mother to three children, Cheema decided that she should have abortions, scared of the shame they would bring to their families if the affair was ever discovered.
When Lakhvir Singh found out that Cheema’s marriage to Gurjeet had been arranged, she decided that if she couldn’t have him, no one could.
Earlier on January 27, 2009, a tenant had let Lakhvir into the property and saw her open up the fridge where the curry was stored.
Upon her arrest, Lakhvir Singh was found to have a bag of brown powder in her coat and handbag which she claimed was for rash on her neck. However, after testing, it was found to be the poison.
It wasn’t immediately clear what had been used to poison the couple, but was discovered to be Aconite, also known as Wolfsbane. It is similar to Cyanide as it stops internal organs, including the heart, from working properly, causing death by asphyxiation. However, Aconite is particularly cruel as it causes the body to become paralysed, but the victims stay conscious throughout.
Lakhvir Singh had travelled to India to get the Aconite, known as an ancient poison. The last person to be prosecuted for murder using Aconite was George Henry Lamson in 1882.
On February 10 2010, Lakhvir Singh was convicted for the murder of Lakhvinder Cheema, as well as grievous bodily harm for poisoning Gurjeet Choough after pleading not guilty to all charges. Singh was acquitted of attempted murder and administering poison on a previous occasion.
Lakhvir Singh received a life sentence and will have to serve at least 23 years before being considered for parole. She is currently eleven years into her sentence.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/10/curry-poisoner-guilty-murder
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/11/poison-curry-killer-sentenced
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/curry-killer-lakhvir-singh-faces-200500