Indian-origin man jailed for abduction,cruelty of daughter

A 75-year-old Indian-origin father who abducted his six-year-old daughter and put her in a boarding school in India has been jailed for four-and-a-half years by a British court.
Amarjit Singh was described in Leicester Crown Court as being "cruel without measure" by taking the child from her mother first to Romania and then to the Punjab where he left her three years ago.
Singh's passport has been now confiscated, Leicester Mercury newspaper reported.
Judge Nicholas Dean told him that he could expect to serve at least three years and four months in custody because of his previous good character and his guilty plea before being eligible for parole.

Singh formed a relationship with a woman of Polish descent living in Loughborough. When she became pregnant he told her to have an abortion but she gave birth to her daughter in April 2006. He saw his daughter for the first time when she was nine months old, the court was told.
Dean said although defence evidence had been given to suggest the mother had an alcohol-related problem there was nothing to suggest she was anything other than a loving mother to her daughter.

"The defendant's actions were cruel to the mother and child. They have not seen each other for three years when, previously, they would have had daily, intimate, contact," he said.

The court said the abduction had been planned and premeditated by Singh, whose ultimate goal was that the child would go into the Indian boarding school even though he knew he was committing a criminal offence by taking her there.
The judge said that Singh had been intentionally unhelpful and obstructive with the probation service, he had done little to assist the girl's return to the UK, and had actually admitted to the police that he had no interest in his daughter.
"It is to be hoped that she will be returned to this country," Dean concluded.