The dad-of-two went to bed that night only for Ramandeep Kaur Mann, his British wife of 11 years, to smother him with a pillow.
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Her lover – Sukhjit’s childhood best friend – then burst into the room, smashing the 34-year-old’s head in with a hammer.
Ramandeep finished him off by slitting his throat, leaving Sukhjit to bleed to death inside his own mother’s home.
The savage murder in northern India was the culmination of a twisted plot to seize £2 million in life insurance and £100,000 in assets.
Ramandeep, now 38, and lover Gurpreet Singh planned to start a new life with the cash.
But their barbaric holiday murder in Basantapur, Uttar Pradesh, near the border of Nepal, was foiled.
It was witnessed by the couple’s eldest son Arjun, then just nine.
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His twisted mum hoped sedatives in the curry would knock the lad out before she killed Sukhjit, but Arjun wasn’t hungry that night.
He didn’t eat enough for the drugs to kick in and just after 10pm he awoke to the sound of his dad struggling as his mum smothered him.
Arjun later told police: “My dad was great but my mum was bad and I don’t want to see her face ever because she killed my dad in front of my eyes.
“She kept a pillow on my dad’s face and asked Gurpreet to slit his throat.”
Police were called and immediately arrested Ramandeep and Gurpreet was nicked trying to board a flight home to Dubai.
The horrors that unfolded that night in September 2016 were a world away from Littleover, the middle-class suburb the family hailed from in Derby.
I got the impression she always got what she wantedFriend of the family
And it was unimaginable that Ramandeep, who grew up in a large semi in a tree-lined street in Slough, Berkshire, was capable of bloody murder.
After all, their marriage seemed perfect.
A pal of the couple told MailOnline Sukhjit “worshipped the ground” his wife walked on.
They added: “[He] waited on her hand and foot. I got the impression she always got what she wanted.”
The pair met in 2002 when Ramandeep was just 17 and Sukhjit, over from India, was 20.
They fell in love and married in 2005 and after running a pizza restaurant in Carshalton, Surrey, moved to Derby to raise their two boys.
THE AFFAIR
Years went by and in November 2015 the couple took their sons on holiday to Dubai to visit Sukhjit’s best pal Gurpreet.
It was here that Ramandeep began an affair and eventually, after flying home, hatched a plan to murder Sukhjit.
One year later, the dad, who spoiled his wife with “nice clothes and jewellery”, was discovered dead in bed, lying in a pool of blood.
It was only in October 2023 that Ramandeep and Gurpreet were finally convicted of Sukhjit’s murder.
Ramandeep has now been sentenced to death by hanging, her lawyers have appealed and could change the sentence to life in prison.
Gurpreet was jailed for life and fined £3,000 but spared the death sentence.
Ramandeep’s family claim she was set up by Sukhjit’s family in an elaborate conspiracy, claiming they wanted him dead for plans to sell family land.
The Manns even paid to get their eldest daughter out of prison, serving remand at family friends in rural India.
After the sentencing in India, Sukhjit’s mother told reporters her “prayers were answered”.
It is unclear when Ramandeep will meet the hangman’s noose.
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