At about 15:30 on the 14th of May 2008, pregnant newly-wed Kuldeep Sidhu (25) was discovered deceased and half-naked at the bottom of her stairs with a rope around her neck. A nearby suicide note claimed that she had taken her own life because her husband Baljinder Singh Sidhu (27) had been having an affair.
However, police discovered that the note could not have been written by Kuldeep and that the ligature marks on her neck could not have been caused by hanging. Detectives also discovered that someone had set fire to the house in Quinton, Birmingham, in an apparent attempt to hide the evidence. They also found no evidence that Mr Sidhu had been having an affair.
In 2011 a coroner ruled that Kuldeep had been murdered by someone she knew. It was also heard in court that Mr Sidhu's family were upset about his marriage to his wife because she came from a lower caste.
The court heard that: Kuldeep had been strangled before a rope was tied around her neck and attached to an upstairs banister. When the fire burnt through it, her body fell and was found at the bottom of the stairs.
The faked suicide note was also released in court:
"We are all drinking and having fun as I want to forget my husband for now who is having an affair with a white woman. I have seen it all with my own eyes. I can't take it any more,' it said. 'Today I am so upset that I do not want to live any more... I have been mentally tortured a lot at this man's hands but I have been unable to tell you.' A 'good friend' wrote the letter on Mrs Sidhu's behalf, the letter claimed. Its author has never been traced, but handwriting experts ruled out the husband and wife.
Mr Sidhi said on the anniversary of his wife's death: "My wife Kully was my whole life and the most loving and kindest person I have ever known in my whole life," he said. "I loved my wife with my whole heart and she loved me with all hers. But on Wednesday 14 May my wife was taken away from me."
The Investigation
Mr Sidhu was arrested over the murder in October 2008, following discrepancies in his accounts of events, the court heard. His mother was also arrested on suspicion of threats to kill following an incident in November 2007. Both were released without charge.
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