Man convicted of murder in UK shifted to Surat jail

A MURDER convict sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment in the UK in 2020 has been brought to Gujarat to serve the remaining sentence under an India-UK agreement, officials said.

The UK government agreed to transfer the convict following an appeal filed by his parents that their son, a native of Gujarat's Valsad district, be allowed to serve the remaining sentence in the state, they said.

The Surat police on Tuesday (17) brought Jigukumar Sorthi (27) to the Lajpore Central Jail in Surat from Delhi.

He was sentenced to 28 years in jail in 2020 by a court in the UK's Leicester city for killing his former fiancee, Surat Commissioner of Police Anupamsingh Gehlot told reporters.

On Monday (16), British officials landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi with Sorthi, a native of Kalgam village under Umargam taluka in Valsad.

He was subsequently brought to the city and handed over to jail authorities by a Surat police team, led by an assistant commissioner of police, Gehlot said.

"Sorthi, a native of Kalgam in Valsad, was convicted in 2020 by a court in the UK for the murder of his former fiancee. He served four years of his sentence there. Under an agreement signed between both the governments, he will serve the remaining sentence (of 24 years) in the Lajpore jail," he said.

During the trial held in the UK in September 2020, Sorthi was found guilty of the murder of her estranged fiancee Bhavini Pravin.

Sorthi stabbed her multiple times at her house in Leicester in March 2020 over some differences regarding their marriage plans. Hours later, he surrendered before the local police and admitted to his crime.

As per the UK media reports, Sorthi had a civil ceremony with Bhavini Pravin in India in 2017. He went to England on a spousal visa in August 2018 and had planned to marry Bhavini in a Hindu wedding ceremony, but her family called it off a day before the murder, the reports said.

(PTI)