Kiranjit Ahluwalia

Kiranjit Ahluwalia (born 1955) is an Indian woman who fatally burned her husband in 1989 in the UK. She claimed it was in response to ten years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. After initially being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Ahluwalia's conviction was later overturned on grounds of inadequate counsel and replaced with voluntary manslaughter. Although her submission of provocation failed (under R v Duffy the loss of control needed to be sudden, which this was not), she successfully pleaded the partial defence of diminished responsibility under s.2 Homicide Act 1957 on the grounds that fresh medical evidence (which was not available at her original trial) may indicate diminished mental responsibility.

The film Provoked (2006) is a fictionalised account of Ahluwalia's life.

Background In 1977, at the age of 22, Kiranjit left her home in Chak Kalal in Punjab to travel to Canada where she visited her sister. On 21 July 1979, she travelled to the UK where she married Deepak, whom she had met only once. She stated that she had endured domestic abuse for ten years, including physical violence, food deprivation, and marital rape at the hands of her husband.

When Kiranjit looked to her family for help, they reprimanded her by saying it was a matter of family honour that she remain with her husband. She ultimately tried running away from home but was found by her husband and brought back. During her marriage, the couple had two sons, who Kiranjit claimed often bore witness to the violence that she endured.

In a later interview, she stated: "I decided to show him how much it hurt. At times I had tried to run away, but he would catch me and beat me even harder. I decided to burn his feet so he couldn't run after me."

Trial and conviction Kiranjit was convicted of murder in December 1989. At the trial, the prosecution argued that although on the night of the event she had been threatened with a hot poker, the fact that she waited until her husband had gone to sleep was evidence that she had time to "cool off".

Appeal and release Kiranjit's case eventually came to the attention of the Southall Black Sisters, who pressed for a mistrial. Her conviction was overturned on appeal in 1992 on grounds of insufficient counsel since Kiranjit had not been aware that she could plead guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. In addition, it was brought to light that she was suffering from severe depression when she set fire to her husband, which her new counsel argued had then altered her decision making abilities. the same year as her appeal, led to the freeing of Emma Humphreys and Sara Thornton.

Gita Sahgal made a film called Unprovoked for the British television investigative documentary programme Dispatches on the subject of Kiranjit's experience.

The story was fictionalised in the film Provoked, which was screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Naveen Andrews played Deepak and Aishwarya Rai played the role of Kiranjit. During the screening at Cannes, Kiranjit sat next to Rai, holding her hand and sobbing during the most violent scenes.