Indian-origin businessman charged with wife's murder in UK

An Indian-origin businessman in the UK has been charged with his wife's murder, nearly three months after her body had been discovered in their home in Wolverhampton.

Gurpreet Singh, 42, was charged yesterday by West Midlands Police detectives with the murder of 38-year-old Sarbjit Kaur.

"This is a murder that has really shocked the local community and we have been working flat-out to move the investigation forward," said Detective Chief Inspector Chris Mallett from West Midlands Police's Homicide Team.

"This is a significant development and we continue to support Kaur's many friends and family," he said.

Singh appeared before Birmingham Magistrates Court today charged with his wife's murder, who had been found unconscious in her home on February 16. A post-mortem examination revealed that Kaur died as a result of asphyxiation. The state of the home at the time had led to speculation that she had been killed as a result of a burglary gone wrong.

It emerged that Singh, who heads Dhanda Properties business in Wolverhampton area, had been the last person to see his wife alive earlier in the day before she was found dead by paramedics.

"Kaur was attacked inside her own home. This is a shocking case, the likes of which are extremely rare, and we have a team of officers working on this murder inquiry to establish what happened and to finding the person or people responsible," Mallett had said at the time as part of a public appeal for information in February.

The police noted that the interior of the home was in an "untidy state", which could indicate it had been searched, and they believed some items are missing.