Stabbings: Punjab-origin man charged in London

LONDON: Police arrested two men on suspicion of murder on Sunday, the night of the fight, when three Punjab-origin men were stabbed in east London. Gurjeet Singh, of South Park Crescent, Ilford, and another man, also 39 years old, are still in police custody.
They were both taken to hospital where they were treated for injuries under police custody. Punjabi interpreters were also sent to the hospital.Narinder Singh from Hoshiarpur, Harinder Kumar from Patiala, and Baljit Singh from Kapurthala were pronounced dead at the scene.
A spokesman for the Indian high commission said, “Two of the victims were illegal in the UK. We are trying to ascertain the third. Our consular wing is in touch with the family of the deceased. The bodies have not been released yet.”

The dispute between the men apparently started at a birthday party on Saturday night and the fight spilled out into the street. As police were called, the group arranged to meet on Sunday evening to finish the fight off.
The leader of Redbridge Council Jas Athwal told TOI: “There was an altercation at a party in a local banqueting hall. Drink was involved and from there bad blood spilled over. One of them was drunk and disorderly and was taken away by police. He was released the next day, once he sobered up. They were all builders, but the dispute was not about unpaid wages. It was some kind of grudge.”
TOI visited the banqueting hall and spoke to the owner. “Police have not contacted me and asked for any CCTV footage. There was a first birthday party, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. We closed at 11pm. Police were called to the main road but not to us,” he said. A car mechanic on High Road said he found a pool of blood on a white car of his garage on Monday morning.

The spot where the bodies were found is where a lot of drug-dealing takes place, neighbours told TOI. “There are lots of drunk people, lots of shouting and lots of drugs. The first we knew there had been a triple murder was the next day. We don’t use the steps near where it happened after 7pm as it is dangerous. There are lots of people loitering,” a Punjabi woman said.
Another neighbour added, “Drug addicts queue outside the Seven Kings Health Centre for drugs and drug deals happen all over the place. They deal them through car windows.” Another woman claimed she heard a man shout, “I will kill you” and another saying, “Go on then, kill me” Yet another said, she heard a man shout “run, run” before police arrived.
Louis O’Donoghue, 40, who lives right next to the murder spot, said, “There was shouting and screaming in a foreign language around 7.30pm. There is often noise so we didn’t go outside. Then we heard the sirens and went outside. There was a man slumped on the ground under our window, and he was moaning. The bodies were left there all night, one had a tent over it, one had a white sheet and one a blanket. I saw a cricket bat and a John Rambo knife. The police and ambulance spent 40 minutes giving CPR. They did their best.”