Kamaljeet Kaur told the High Court at Dunedin this morning that she had married 27-year-old Gurjit Singh in a ceremony in India in May 2023 and her flights were booked and bags packed to join him in New Zealand on February 6 the following year.
Nine days before her scheduled arrival, her new husband was stabbed at least 46 times at his Liberton home and almost decapitated.
Rajinder, 35, who previously employed the victim as a fibre-optic cable installer, has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Kamaljeet Kaur said she discovered Rajinder's father had approached a match-maker from a "wedding bureau" in India to find a wife for his son and she was identified as a possible candidate.
However, she told the court she was "not interested" because she was focused on a relationship with Mr Singh.
However, Rajinder’s sister Harmeet Kaur said it was Kamaljeet Kaur’s family who twice pressed for the marriage.
Mr Singh and Kamaljeet Kaur had come together when he added her as a friend on Facebook.
She said she told Mr Singh about her mooted marriage to Rajinder but never heard of any ensuing friction between the men.
The court also heard of further efforts made by the defendant to find a wife.
Harmeet Kaur was enlisted to ask Mr Singh if his sister would marry Rajinder, but Mr Singh rejected that proposal because she was too young.
The defendant was eventually married in January 2023, the court heard.
Mr Singh was found dead outside his home, surrounded by shards of glass on the morning of January 29 last year.
He immediately messaged a friend: "Jeeps just heard a lot of breaking glass outside".
Mr Richardson said he later heard what sounded like the glass being cleaned up and thought he saw a car driving away when he looked across the road.
Another resident Taylor Wyllie contacted police to report a "dark-skinned" man he saw loitering around Mr Singh’s home a few days before the killing.
"I'd seen them looking into that property there and then when they noticed me, they kind of just turned around and started staring off into the distance. I just thought it was strange," he said.
Mr Wyllie described the man as having a "rough sort of beard" and wavy hair – not wearing a turban.
Yesterday, the Crown outlined the "compelling" evidence the jury would hear over the next three weeks.
An examination of Mr Singh’s Hilary St home found several blood stains - as well as a hair found in the victim’s hand - which could be attributed to the defendant with strong scientific certainty.
He said Mr Singh’s blood was also found in the upholstery of the defendant’s car and police found a pair of Rajinder's shoes with glass embedded in the sole which matched that at the scene.
Jurors would watch CCTV footage from just hours before the attack which showed Rajinder buying gloves from Bunnings Warehouse and a scarf and knife from Hunting & Fishing – items that were never recovered by police.
When officers interviewed Rajinder, he said he was giving his wife a driving lesson at midnight on the night of Mr Singh’s death.
It was "impossible" that his blood was at the crime scene, he said.
Mr Singh had initially worked for Rajinder but left to set up his own business as a contractor in September 2022.
Police forensic accountant Martyn Solomon said the victim’s contracting income outstripped that of his former boss from that point.
Working for himself, Mr Singh made $157,798 gross while Rajinder earned $66,614 during that period, the witness said.
Counsel Katy Barker stressed the numbers were simplistic and did not take into account Rajinder’s extended overseas trip, his other income streams nor his overall financial position with more than $800,000 in the bank.
Mr Solomon accepted the defendant was in a stronger financial position overall.
Ms Barker told the jury in her opening yesterday that the defendant had lived in New Zealand since 2015 and had built a good life here.
"This doesn’t make any sense at all that [he] would risk losing all that . . . by killing Mr Singh, a person he’d previously employed and was on good terms with," she said.
