Surjit Athwal

Surjit Kaur Athwal (17 July 1971 – December 1998) was a British-Indian woman murdered in an honour killing in India. She was 27 years old at the time of her death, and had two children, aged 7 and 9 months.

Her murder was instigated by her mother-in-law, 70-year-old Bachan Kaur Athwal, in collusion with Surjit's husband, Sukhdev Singh Athwal. Surjit had started divorce proceedings against her abusive husband. A divorce would bring shame onto the Athwals, so Bachan Kaur lured Surjit to India, leading her to believe that if she attended two weddings in Punjab, the family would consent to a divorce. Instead, she was killed there and her body has never been found.

This case marked the first conviction, in a British court, of an honour killing committed outside of the UK.

Background Surjit was born in Coventry, England, in 1971 and grew up in the Foleshill suburb of the city. Both Sukhdev and Surjit's family are Sikhs, of Punjabi origin. and was said to treat Surjit like a slave. Keen for some independence, Surjit found work as a customs agent with HM Customs and Excise at London Heathrow Airport; she began to dress in western-style clothing, wore make-up and socialised with her colleagues. She had formed a relationship with someone she had met at work and was having an affair. When this was discovered, she sought a divorce. and Sukhdev claimed to have spoken to her on the phone to confirm that she wasn't coming back, yet he told someone else she'd "passed away"; they forged letters purporting to be from the Metropolitan Police which they sent to the Indian Police to put them off investigating, he then petitioned for a divorce, When Surjit failed to return to the UK on 18 December, she sent an anonymous letter to the local police station repeating her concerns. but were released without charge. The evidence was deemed purely circumstantial. Sarbjit and her family were subjected to death threats, intimidation and were shunned within the local Sikh community as a result.

Aftermath Surjit's children were taken into the care of Social Services when their father was arrested. After being forced to return what would've been Surjit's portion of the proceeds, it was awarded to her two children via a compensation order. in 2013, he wrote to British Prime Minister, David Cameron, asking that he "press the Indian Prime Minister" to have the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of India reinvestigate the case. In response, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated: "We cannot interfere in another country's legal procedures, just as they cannot interfere in ours".

Really (TV channel) crime series, "The Killer in My Family" (Series 1, Episode 5 - Bachan Kaur Athwal) also covered the case.

In September 2022, Surjit's story was featured on the podcast Method & Madness.

In June 2023, Surjit's story was revisited in series 2 of 'When Missing Turns to Murder'.