Two jailed for life for killing Indian-origin Sikh shopkeeper

The Bradford Crown Court sentenced 20-year-old Muawaz Khalid and his 18-year-old accomplice Nabeel Shafi to life in prison for killing Gurmail Singh, 63, for a few pounds, some sweets, alcohol and cigarettes during a raid at his shop in West Yorkshire in February, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Singh came to England from India in 1963 and raised his family in Huddersfield. He bought the Cowcliffe shop about five years ago. "This was a most violent and sickening attack by at least two of you on a lone shopkeeper late at night. It is to be regretted that no defendant at any time during the eight- week trial showed the slightest remorse," Justice Henriques was quoted as saying in the court.

The judge said the victim's skull had been shattered into little pieces' by the force of the blows. "One blow would have disabled him, seven blows took his life away. If Gurmail Singh had abandoned his property and money and said 'take what you want boys', he would not have lost his life.

"He was too brave for that. There may have been mental or physical suffering inflicted on the victim before death, in the sense this was a sickeningly violent and unnecessarily savage assault on a man in his 60s," he said.

The court was told Singh died as a result of a "robbery gone wrong" and he "didn't meekly hand over his hard- earned money" to a gang of robbers who targeted his shop. The court also heard how members of the public came to Singh's aid. One man trapped two members of the gang inside by holding the door shut but they got out of a back door after desperate attempts to smash their way out of front.