'Gay bank worker strangled his wife with a vacuum cleaner pipe and burnt her body in garden incinerator after marrying her to hide his sexuality’

 

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Jasvir Ram Ginday, 30, is accused of killing wife Varkha Rani, 24, on September 12 last year

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

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.

 

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Police at the scene of Jasvir Ram Ginday and Varkha Rani's house in Walsall, West Midlands, after her body was found in an incinerator in the back garden of the property

 

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Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Ginday allegedly carried out the brutal attack on his wife because he was unable to pretend to be straight. The court heard he strangled his wife before forcing her body into the 22-inch deep incinerator and setting it alight

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.’

 

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Ginday, of Walsall, West Midlands, denies the charge of murder by has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and also a further charge of perverting the course of justice by lying to police

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.

 

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Forensic experts at the property in Walsall, West Midlands, left, after the charred remains of 24-year-old Varkha Rani were found by police officers, right, in an incinerator in the back garden

‘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 head 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.

 

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Miss Gould said that on the day of the murder the couple were left alone in the house for the first time as both Ginday's parents, who also lived at the address, were out

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’.

 

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Prosecutor Debbie Gould said Ginday reported his wife missing on September 12 and told officers his wife had assaulted him before walking out of their home in Victory Lane, Walsall, pictured

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.

 

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Police attended the house on September 12 last year after Mr Ginday reported his wife missing. However, officers did not find her body until the next day when they became suspicious of black smoke billowing from the property

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.

 

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Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday heard Ginday allegedly carried out the brutal attack on his wife because he was unable to pretend to be straight

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.