This is the chilling moment when a cold-blooded killer casually strolls through Bunnings to buy the equipment he needs to bury his ex-girlfriend alive in a shallow grave.
Tarikjot Singh abducted Jasmeen Kaur, 21, from the retirement home where she worked in North Plympton, Adelaide, in March 2021.
She was later tied up with tape and zip ties and then buried while still conscious in Death Rock near Hawker in the Flinders Ranges.
Ms. Kaur died from “active inhalation and ingestion of soil.”
Singh was jailed on Thursday and given a non-parole period of less than 23 years.
Now CCTV footage has surfaced of Singh casually strolling through a hardware store, purchasing a shovel, zip ties, gaffer tape, gloves and a jerry can in the hours before committing his heartless crime.
CCTV footage has surfaced of Singh casually strolling through Bunnings, purchasing a shovel, cable ties, gaffer tape, gloves and a jerry can in the hours before committing his heartless crime (pictured)
At one point, he even asks an employee for help.
Singh, who was 20 at the time, initially pleaded not guilty to Ms Kaur’s murder but changed his plea a month before his Supreme Court trial was due to begin in March this year.
On Tuesday, Judge Adam Kimber Singh ordered to serve a non-parole period of 22 years and 10 months, which is only slightly longer than South Australia’s mandatory minimum non-parole for murder of 20 years.
In handing down the verdict, Judge Adam Kimber said the murder was “gruesome” and “extremely callous” and that he couldn’t find words to describe the horror of Ms. Kaur’s final moments. ABC reported.
“The terror she felt as she was abducted, held and held in the car on the long drive to Moralana Creek is hard enough to quantify,” Judge Kimber said.
“I can’t describe the shock Mrs. Kaur must have felt when she realized you were burying her alive.”
Jasmeen Kaur (pictured), 21, was abducted from her workplace and later tied up with tape and zip ties and then buried alive in Death Rock near Hawker in the Flinders Ranges
Tarikjot Singh (pictured) has been sentenced to a non-parole period of 22 years and 10 months for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Jasmeen Kaur
The court heard that Singh had not disclosed details of how he kidnapped Ms Kaur from her place of work or what he did to her in the hours that followed.
However, Justice Kimber said the evidence was clear that she suffered greatly and was forced to take a long car ride while bound and gagged.
Justice Kimber said it was clear the murder was planned and Singh had taken steps to cover up the heinous act.
“The enormity of what you were doing must have been obvious to you,” Judge Kimber said.
‘There was time for reflection. There was time to deviate from the plan. Nevertheless, you went ahead and killed Mrs. Kaur.’
Justice Kimber told Singh he was “satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt” that the killer was only worried about himself.
“You killed Mrs. Kaur to punish her for not wanting to have a relationship with you and for going to the police,” he said.
Singh will be in his early 40s when he is eligible for parole in January 2044
Ms Kaur was buried alive in a shallow grave in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges
Police had warned Singh about stalking in early February 2021, less than a month before the murder.
While filing the sentencing, the court learned that Singh wrote several messages to Ms Kaur in the days leading up to her death, which he ultimately never sent.
A statement read: ‘Your bad luck I’m still alive, cheap, wait and see, will get the answer, everyone will get the answer’ and ‘deep down what I feel but can’t overcome’.
When first questioned by police on March 6, he said he could not remember when he last saw Ms Kaur and insisted he had been home the night of her death.
A day later, Singh told police officers that Ms. Kaur had committed suicide and that he had buried her in the Flinders Ranges.
He took police to the cemetery, where officers found Ms. Kaur’s shoes, glasses and name badge in a bin, along with zip ties.
Ms Kaur made a statement to the police in 2021 detailing how Singh had been stalking her
Ms Kaur had made a statement to police just five weeks before her death, detailing how her “overpossessive” killer repeatedly pursued her at work.
On January 28, 2021, Ms. Kaur wrote that she had been in a controlling relationship with Singh for about nine months.
“He was too possessive and wanted to control who I spent time with,” she said in the document released by the Supreme Court.
Ms Kaur told police she had ended the relationship on January 4, 2021, but Singh “didn’t take this well”.
“He told me to be with him or he would try to kill himself,” she said.
During their relationship, she said that Singh sometimes “got upset” when she made plans to go out with friends and called her and demanded she go home.
Singh, an Indian national who came to Australia to study IT at university and who has also worked as a respite care worker, is likely to be deported when released from prison.