London, Nov 5 The UK’s Court of Appeal on Thursday increased the minimum term of a 23-year-old British Sikh man’s life sentence for the murder of an 18-year-old student in south-east England.
Vickrum Digwa, who had attempted a religious kirpan self defence for the fatal stabbing, must now serve a minimum of 25 years behind bars instead of 21 before being eligible for parole.
Digwa had been found guilty of killing Henry Nowak five times with the 21-cm blade as the Southampton University student returned home from a night out in Portswood last December
“The fact that the knife’s initial carriage had been lawful does not reduce the seriousness of its subsequent unlawful use,” Baroness Sue Carr, the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, said in her ruling.
The court concluded that the original sentence was “unduly lenient”, and refused Digwa permission to appeal against it.
In June, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years before being eligible for parole.
Digwa has now been given permission to challenge the length of that sentence at the Court of Appeal on November 5. He has also applied to appeal against his conviction for murder, which will be decided separately.
The case triggered an uproar as the accused attempted to use a religious self defence argument, claiming the blade involved was a kirpan – a ceremonial knife Sikhs have a legal dispensation to carry in the UK.
British Sikh groups have since expressed fears of a “backlash” and increase in “hate crime” against the community following the case.
In July, Digwa’s India-born mother Kiran Kaur was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment after she was convicted of assisting an offender at Southampton Crown Court. The 53-year-old was found guilty of taking possession of the weapon used by Vickrum Digwa to kill Henry Nowak in Southampton and assisting in its removal from the scene to hinder the investigation.
“It is a fundamental principle of Sikhism that any kirpan is worn as a symbol of religious faith and is never to be carried for an offensive purpose,” said Justice William Mousley while sentencing Kaur.
“It is obvious that for use to be reasonable, any perceived threat justifying its use would only be in circumstances of great seriousness and urgency,” he said at the time.
As the details of Digwa’s crime were laid out in court earlier this year, British Sikh leaders and parliamentarians condemned the misrepresentation of the kirpan and highlighted that “no religious protection or justification applied” in the case.
However, it caused community tensions in Southampton and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary officers were under an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation amid allegations of “two-tier” policing, where one community is prioritised over another.
It related to footage of the victim’s final moments from a police body-worn camera that showed him being handcuffed by officers over Digwa’s allegations of racism, which were later debunked in court.
(PTI News)
