The father of a Dunedin man murdered by his former employer hopes the killer will one day reveal his motive.
Rajinder, 35, went to 27-year-old Gurjit Singh’s Liberton home late on January 28 last year where he stabbed him at least 46 times and attempted to decapitate the victim on his own front lawn.
After nearly a day of deliberation, the jury returned its unanimous verdict in the High Court at Dunedin yesterday, the announcement of which elicited no reaction from the defendant.
Outside court, Mr Singh’s father, Nishan, spoke of his heartbreak at losing his “honest and hardworking” only son through such horrific circumstances.
Only Rajinder knew why he had committed the murder, but Nishan Singh believed it was because Kamaljeet Kaur — who wed the victim in July 2023 — had earlier rejected a marriage to the defendant.
“I just hope some day [he] confesses why he did it and that will give me more peace in life,” Nishan Singh said.
“He has not just ruined our life but his family’s lives as well.”
Rajinder worked for Downer as a fibre-optic cable installer, employing Mr Singh for about a year before the victim started his own business in September 2022.
Witnesses said the split had caused no animosity between the men, but it was in their personal lives where the Crown said the motive lay.
At the time of Mr Singh’s death, Ms Kaur was just days away from arriving in Dunedin to start her new life with him, the court heard.
“Perhaps that opened old wounds,” Crown prosecutor Richard Smith said.
On the afternoon of Mr Singh’s death, Rajinder was captured on CCTV buying gloves from Bunnings, a knife and neck gaiter from Hunting & Fishing — purchases he later failed to disclose to police when interviewed.
The footage may never have been dug up if the murder had “gone to plan”, Mr Smith said.
But it did not.
During the frenzied attack, Rajinder suffered a deep wound on his left hand, something police noted and photographed during his initial interview.
The defendant passed it off as an old chainsaw injury, but the CCTV showed him without any such blemish in the hours before the killing.
In a second interview, Rajinder admitted the lie and claimed he had sustained the wound in a bike accident during a midnight jaunt to Mosgiel, giving his wife a driving lesson.
It was one of a series of “ridiculous” lies, Mr Smith said.
It prompted police to zero in on his movements, but it was the forensic evidence from the crime scene which proved most damning.
Blood from inside the Hillary St home and drops swabbed by scientists on the path and road outside came back as 500,000 million times more likely to be Rajinder’s DNA than anyone else’s.
A blood stain on the roof lining of the defendant’s Toyota Prius was revealed to contain cellular material from both him and the victim.
The Crown, in closing, also highlighted the fact a hair matching the defendant’s DNA profile was found in the bloodied hand of Mr Singh during an autopsy.
“That’s about all the evidence you need,” Mr Smith told the jury.
Alongside that, there was the detached thumb of a glove found by police lying on the victim’s blood-spattered deck.
When analysed by experts, a DNA match could not be made, but the material components of the item matched the gloves bought by Rajinder earlier in the day.
None of the earlier purchased items were found by police in a subsequent search of the defendant’s home.
Mr Smith said they were likely disposed of during the Mosgiel trip or during Rajinder’s visit to a skip at his Green Island workplace early the following morning, which was captured on video at the premises.
Once he was arrested a week after the murder, police also gained access to his cellphones.
Despite Rajinder saying he had never visited Mr Singh’s home and denying knowledge of where he lived, a phone used by the defendant and his father featured a search for the victim’s address and a “dropped pin” at the location.
Mr Smith said the evidence painted an overwhelmingly clear picture.
Detective Senior Sergeant Nik Leigh agreed, saying “we’ve got the right result”.
He paid tribute to the dozens of police staff and specialist investigators who worked to unravel the “tragic and senseless killing”.
“We threw everything at it,” he said.
Rajinder will be sentenced in April.