Murder accused admits snooping on wife's Facebook page

Geeta Aulakh's hand was hacked off with a machete by her killers

A man accused of having his wife killed when she asked for a divorce has admitted hacking into her Facebook page to see if she was having an affair.

Geeta Aulakh, 28, was attacked with a machete in Greenford, west London, in November 2009.

Her estranged husband, Harpreet Aulakh, 32, and three other men, Sher Singh, 19, Harpeet Singh, 20, and Jaswant Dhillon, 30, deny murder.

Mr Aulakh also said her parents might have been responsible for the killing.

Under cross-examination by Aftab Jafferjee, QC, prosecuting, Mr Aulakh admitted he used her password to access her Facebook profile in an effort to find evidence of an affair.

Mr Aulakh said he suspected his wife was having an affair in the summer and early autumn of 2009.

He admitted going to her workplace, Sunrise Radio in Southall, and accusing one of her colleagues, Hemant Kumar, who denied he was having an affair with her.

Mr Aulakh claimed he asked a friend who worked at the radio station, Satty Gill, to find out if she was having an affair.

He claimed that by the end of October - two weeks before Mrs Aulakh was killed - he was satisfied she was not having an affair.

Earlier Mr Aulakh suggested her parents might have been responsible for her murder.

Mr Jafferjee suggested she had "no enemies" other than him and he asked Mr Aulakh if he had "racked his brains" to think who might have wanted her dead.

Mr Aulakh said it might have been parents, who had been angry with her for marrying him. The defendant said her father had once said "she is as good as dead".

The trial, at the Old Bailey, has heard that her parents disapproved of the relationship because he was a Sikh and she was a Hindu.

Mr Jafferjee asked why three of his friends would have been in the area when his wife was murdered.

"I don't know. There might be hundreds of reasons," he replied, "Maybe I have done something to their families... I don't know sir. Ask them."

Mr Jafferjee asked him if he was suggesting she was killed to hurt him and pressed him on what he might have done to upset them.

"Maybe I dishonoured Harpreet's family by swearing at his sister," he replied.

"And that could be a reason why he murdered your wife?" asked Mr Jafferjee.

"It could be sir," he replied.

Mr Jafferjee said: "The truth is that you organised your wife's murder and your three friends were all in it with you. They carried out that ghastly act while you sat in a pub giving yourself an alibi."

Mr Aulakh was also asked about CCTV footage from a shop a few weeks before the murder in which he and a friend could be seen purchasing a machete similar to the one used in the murder.

Wedding video

Mr Aulakh claimed it was his friend, Lovepreet Singh, who wanted the machete and two swords to send back to India.

He was also asked about a home video taken at his brother's wedding in the summer of 2009.

In it Sher Singh can be seen dancing with Mr Aulakh's mother and hoisting one of Mr Aulakh's sons onto his shoulders.

Mr Jafferjee suggested the video showed Sher Singh - who the prosecution claim was the actual killer of Mrs Aulakh - was very close to Mr Aulakh and his family.

Mr Aulakh denied it and said: "At a wedding everybody dances with your mother. He was a friend of my cousin's, not mine."

Mr Jafferjee said: "By 16 November you had put together a murderous gang, that you were in charge of, and that gang were going to do your work for you. That's the truth of this isn't it?"

"No sir," he replied.

The trial continues.