By PATRICK GOWER
A woman who doused a greengrocer with petrol then set him alight had been "friendly" with him for up to four years before, court documents revealed yesterday.
The police allege that Armajeet Kaur Singh, a 27-year-old mother, attempted to murder Swaran Singh and set fire to his car
on the outskirts of Hamilton in June.
In depositions material presented to the Hamilton District Court, a worker from Mr Singh's Vege-Heaven vegetable store said the accused was one of two women customers he was "friendlier towards than others".
Rena Spain said Armajeet Singh would say nothing when she came in with a person who appeared to be her mother, but when she was alone would be taken aside by the victim.
She said that in March she found the two of them out the back of the store arguing in Indian.
Mr Singh, 33, was a private person who lived in Auckland with his wife and their young son. All of his evidence against the woman was suppressed, as was the content of some letters the police allege she wrote to him, when her lawyer, Phillip Morgan, said it could prejudice the jury at trial.
Police found one letter, which showed "a strong dislike" for the person it was intended for, in the bedroom the accused shared with her husband, Ranjit Singh, at her parents' house.
A similar letter was also found at the victim's house. The police also allege the accused would ring Swaran Singh from payphones in the weeks before the incident.
When Mr Singh went to see the accused on the day of the attack, he said he was popping out for 10 minutes. Police allege she rang him from a service station payphone to arrange the urgent meeting.
He was then seen by passersby sitting in the parked car talking amicably with her. But 10 minutes later the car was engulfed in flames.
Mr Singh sprang from the car and doused himself in nearby mud, but despite being badly burned was able to make two calls from a mobile phone.
The doctor who first examined him said he had burns to 10 per cent of his body. He later required a skin-graft on one of his damaged hands.
Armajeet Singh pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody to appear in the High Court late this year.
