A nursing student was kidnapped by her abandoned ex-boyfriend and buried alive in Australia’s Flinders Ranges in a horrific act of revenge, a court has heard.
Jasmeen Kaur, 21, from Adelaide, was killed by Tarikjot Singh in March 2021.
Singh pleaded guilty to the murder, but horrific recent details of his crimes emerged during his sentencing on the High Court on Wednesday.
Jasmeen was kidnapped from her workplace on March 5 and drove over 400 miles, tied with cable ties within the trunk of a automobile Singh had borrowed from his roommate.
Singh then made “superficial” incisions in Jasmeen’s throat and buried her in a shallow grave.
The injuries to her neck weren’t enough to kill her. She was aware of her surroundings when she died in some unspecified time in the future on March 6.
Prosecutor Carmen Matteo said the murder was “ineffective” and Jasmeen was “made to suffer”.
“She should have consciously suffered what can only be described as absolutely the terror of respiratory and swallowing earth and dying like that,” Ms. Matteo said.
Kaur’s family, including her mother, were in court to listen to the guilty pleas.
Jasmeen was murdered a month after Singh was reported to the police for stalking.
The court heard that Singh planned the killing because he was unable to recover from the breakup of their relationship.
“The way in which Mrs. Kaur was killed involved a very extraordinary level of cruelty,” Ms. Matteo said.
“It isn’t known when her throat was slit, it isn’t known when or how she got into this grave or was placed on this grave and it isn’t known when it was dug, except that the prosecution claims it should have been while she was still alive.” and preparations for her funeral.
“[It was] murder that was committed as an act of revenge or as an act of revenge.”
The court heard that Singh wrote several messages to Jasmeen within the run-up to her death, which he never sent.
One said, “It is your bad luck I’m still alive, low cost, wait and watch, he’ll get a solution, everybody’ll get a solution.”
Singh initially denied the murder, saying that Jasmeen had committed suicide and that he had buried the body.
He took officers to her burial site, where they found shoes, glasses, and Jasmeen’s name tag in a basket, next to looped cable ties.
Singh was told in court that he was facing life imprisonment.