Murder of Surjit Athwal

Common card · No. 415339

Surjit Kaur Athwal (17 July 1971 – December 1998) was a British-Indian woman murdered in an honour killing in India. She was 27 years old at the time of her death, and had two children, aged 7 and 9 months. Her murder was instigated by her mother-in-law, 70-year-old Bachan Kaur Athwal, in collusion with Surjit's husband, Sukhdev Singh Athwal. Surjit had started divorce proceedings against her abusive husband. A divorce would bring shame onto the Athwals, so Bachan Kaur lured Surjit to India, leading her to believe that if she attended two weddings in Punjab, the family would consent to a divorce. Instead, she was killed there and her body has never been found. This case marked the first conviction, in a British court, of an honour killing committed outside of the UK.

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