Trauma after murder

Satinder Kaur with her children, Birkaran (L) and Karmen. Photo / Herald on Sunday

A Kiwi mum who witnessed her husband's murder at the hands of "greedy" family members in India says she is still traumatised, even as the killers were this week jailed for life.

Aucklander Satinder Kaur was also shot and wounded in the attack that claimed the life of her husband Jagdev Singh, 38, in the northern Indian province of Punjab in 2006.

She was shot in the leg but managed to escape with her children, aged 3 and 5.

Singh's brother, Purshotam Singh Mann, and Mann's son, Lakhbir, planned the execution-style killing after the family clashed over ownership of the family's 18ha grain and rice farm. Singh had asked for his $15,000 share in the family's farm to help buy a new home in Papatoetoe.

Both men were sentenced to life imprisonment but Mann's wife, Paramijt Kaur, was acquitted of any role in the killing.

While Kaur recovered from her injuries in hospital, her daughter Karmen, son Birkaran and their stepbrother were cared for by the New Zealand Embassy in Delhi.

Karmen, now aged 9, said: "We still miss Dad very much".

And her mum is struggling to move on with her life.

"They destroyed everything we had through their greed," she said. "The kids are still really upset; they really miss him.

"Every few days they talk about their dad. We have kept his clothes and shoes to remember him by."

Kaur said she was still waiting for her husband's share of the farm - and felt powerless to make it happen.

"I want to sort everything out in India but I can't leave. My children were born here and I don't want any effect on their study.

"I want to move on but I can't think of any future plans or anything like that.

"Four years is too long. I still suffer from depression, stress, I have had heart problems and am taking medicine for that."

She started studying early childhood education training but found it too stressful and was advised by a doctor to leave.

In India Kaur's lawyer, Wadaich, said that family killings in disputes over property were common in Punjab.

"Unfortunately people are greedy, and there are many killings within families for property and inheritance."

He said the father and son killers were likely to serve 14 years of their life sentence.

Singh, who lived in New Zealand for 17 years, worked as a driver for South Auckland Taxis.

After he was murdered, Fidelity Life refused to pay out all of the family's $350,000 mortgage insurance policy, because although he held a non-smoker policy, medical records described him as a smoker. Eventually Fidelity increased the family's payout from $80,000 to $180,000.