Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Killing Former Wife in UK

An Indian-origin man based in the United Kingdom has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his ex-wife. Ashwin Daudia, 51, was seen in a CCTV footage, dragging the suitcase that contained the remains of Kiran Daudia’s body.

He strangled her before putting her body into the suitcase. He later dumped it in an alley located behind trash bins, the BBC reported.

Daudia was said to be a controlling resentful husband and the couple had been divorced for three years, after being together for 26 years. Kiran, a mother of two, was an employee of a retail firm and the couple were going to sell their property to Kiran’s sister Preti Jethwa, according to media reports. Though they were divorced, Daudia continued to live with Kiran in the same house at North Evington, Leicester.

On Jan. 16 last year, the day when the sale was supposed to take place, Kiran was reported missing by her family when she did not come back from work. After police started investigating her disappearance, the officers received a call from one of their neighbors the next morning who had discovered an abandoned suitcase in their backyard. The police later found a CCTV footage that showed Daudia dragging the suitcase.

Daudia admitted to killing his ex-wife out of rage and said he lost control as he would be rendered homeless and that she was seeing other men. “In my judgment you were arrogant, bullying and bent upon maintaining control. In short, I’m quite satisfied the course of destruction of your family was a course charted by you. Your selfish pride fueled your anger,” Judge Timothy Spencer QC said while sentencing him, the BBC report added.

According to the prosecution, an argument and a struggle had ensued between the two. Daudia is suspected to have strangled Kiran with her own scarf. “Had this been some sort of domestic incident which had got out of hand and the defendant immediately regretted what had happened, one might have expected him to have raised the alarm and called for an ambulance or the police,” said William Harbage QC, the prosecutor.

He added that Daudia did nothing of that kind. In fact, he tried to cover up his act and was quite cool.

Kiran’s family in a statement has said that she was full of dreams and was the backbone of the family, the Mirror reported.

“Through his own selfish, cowardly actions Daudia has ripped this family apart, leaving two doting sons without a mother and other family members distraught and struggling to get over the pain and heartache he has caused,” said detective Sergeant Mark Wesley, who was part of the investigation team, according to reports.