Sikh asylum seeker gets jail in UK gun case

LONDON, July 14: Jagroop Bathh, 45, was cleared of being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate senior Punjab police officer Sumedh Saini while he was on holiday in Britain.

But Bathh, a Sikh asylum seeker was jailed at the Old Bailey for four years for possessing a gun with the intention to endanger life. Judge Neil Dennison yesterday said he believed the gun would have been handed over to a terrorist suspect. I take the view that you got involved in this matter because of a misguided sense of friendship.

Bathh, who came to Britain from Punjab in 1989, had denied the charges but had pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm. He was jailed on that charge for 18 months, to run concurrently.

The court was told that police who had been keeping watch saw Bathh with a terrorist suspect near the house where Saini, deputy inspector general of the Indian police force, was staying.

After the policeman left Britain, the double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun was found in the loft of Bathh8217;s home in Southall, westLondon.