24-year-old Indian sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing girlfriend to death in Auckland

A New Zealand court, on 4 October, sentenced a 24-year-old Indian student to life imprisonment for stabbing his pregnant girlfriend to death.

According to a report in NDTV, Auckland High Court judge Matthew Palmer has said the accused - Akash - displayed "cruelty, brutality and callousness" when he stabbed his girlfriend who disclosed to him that the baby wasn't his.

The judge said that 22-year-old Gurpreet Kaur and Akash was in a secret relation for 12 months. Akash took this drastic step when his partner said she wanted to end the relationship.

The accused, when he stabbed his girlfriend 29 times, was under the influence of methamphetamine, and dumped the body in roadside bushes south of Auckland.

Akash pleaded non-guilty initially, but admitted his guilt in August, four months after being arrested.

Palmer said that Kaur was 7 to 10 weeks pregnant and the crime has inflicted pain on her family. Palmer said, "Not only did you murder Gurpreet Kaur and deprive her family of her existence, but you deprived her and her family of the potential of another life," the judge said.