Gay Banker strangled wife, burnt body in incinerator to hide his sexuality

• Posted on March 19, 2014March 19, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A bank worker who married to conceal his homosexuality strangled his wife a few months later with a metal vacuum pipe, a court heard Tuesday.

Jasvir Ram Ginday throttled Varkha Rani and tried to destroy her remains in an incinerator after going through with the arranged marriage to please his parents.

The couple tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in India last March – even though Ginday, 30, had confided in a friend years earlier that he was attracted to men, the jury were told.

The defendant had travelled to  the subcontinent with his mother to find a bride and met several women before a match-maker known to both families introduced him to Miss Rani.

Prosecutor Debbie Gould told a jury the couple became engaged ‘at the end of a meeting which lasted several hours’, with Miss Rani’s family believing Ginday to be ‘a perfect match for their intelligent, well-educated, and attractive young daughter’.

The bride, who had completed a degree and a master’s degree in science and information technology in India, moved to the UK to live with Ginday in August after being granted a visa.

But just a month later, police discovered the unrecognisable remains of the 24-year-old bride in the back garden of the home they shared with other members of Ginday’s family.

Miss Gould said that after killing his wife, Ginday had forced her body into a 22-inch deep metal incinerator in an alley beside their home.

He called police that night to report her missing – claiming she had walked out after assaulting him and had only married him for a visa to get into the UK.

Miss Gould said: ‘His ultimate intention was to play the role of victim, safe in the knowledge that he could rely on his married status as a permanent excuse for never having another relationship with a woman…his respectability and that of his family’s would be secured.’
She said Miss Rani was ‘in all senses a stranger in a strange land’ following her arrival in the UK last August, and appeared to be isolated, friendless and alone.

The financially secure defendant, meanwhile, was ‘staring reality in the face’ and would have had to explain any attempt to divorce his new bride.

‘His marriage was motivated by a desire to please his parents and conceal his homosexuality from them,’ Miss Gould said.

‘Over the years the defendant made contact with gay chat lines to discuss his sexuality, he developed a network of gay male friends and he attended gay clubs in the Birmingham area.’

The court heard Ginday and his wife had been alone in the  house at Walsall, West Midlands, on September 12, the day of the murder.

That afternoon, neighbours saw smoke and likened the smell to that which comes from a crematorium.

When one concerned resident knocked on Ginday’s door, he claimed he was simply burning rubbish.

Police searched the property that night after Ginday made the missing persons report, but they did not look in the garden.

They returned the next night after neighbours reported seeing black smoke for the second day running.

Although Ginday had attempted to destroy his wife’s body, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that a woman police constable ‘lifted the lid (of the incinerator) and found herself looking down on a human skull which was severely burnt’.

Miss Gould said the skull was not complete and had only a few teeth, while the body was described as being ‘folded up and foetal-like’.

Officers also discovered Miss Rani’s wedding ring inside the 22-inch deep incinerator.

An examination of computer equipment showed that somebody at the property had searched for incinerators online around four weeks before Miss Rani’s death.

CCTV images also showed Ginday filling up a water bottle with petrol at a service station just hours before the body was discovered.

Pathologists later confirmed the human remains were that of Miss Rani and that she had  died from strangulation by a metal pole being placed across her throat.

Miss Rani’s father, Surjit Singh told the jury he had no idea his son-in-law was gay, and didn’t even know what the term meant. He said through an interpreter that he had been ‘shocked and distressed’ after British police had explained it to him.

He added: ‘Of course I wouldn’t have let her marry him if I had known. I have never heard of it before. No, Varkha didn’t know about gay either.’

Ginday denies a charge of murder but has admitted manslaughter and a further charge of perverting the course of justice by lying to police. The trial continues.

Daily Mail