An Indian-origin man recently sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his father in north London by smashing a champagne bottle over his head.
Deekan Paul Singh Vig, 54, was found guilty after a trial at the Old Bailey Court last month and was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in prison before being considered for parole at the same court on Friday.
“The actions of Deekan Paul Singh Vig have left his family devastated. They must continue to deal with the loss of a loved one while he will spend a significant period of time in jail as a result of his actions,” said Wayne Jolley, the Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector who led the murder investigation.
According to the Met Police, Vig’s father, 86-year-old Arjan Singh Vig, lived in the same Southgate, north London, home where police were called to a disturbance in October 2021. Despite the efforts of emergency personnel, Arjan was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
“A post-mortem examination revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head,” the police stated.
Officers discovered Arjan’s body on the floor of his son’s bedroom, his “head caved in,” the trial heard later.
His son was naked and surrounded by about 100 bottles of Champagne, including blood-stained bottles of Veuve Cliquot and Bollinger, as per the sources.
“I murdered my father. I hit him with a bloody bottle of Bollinger champagne,” Vig allegedly said.
Jurors heard how Vig had lived in their four-bedroom home for about 40 years with his accountant father and zoologist mother Damanjit Vig, 85. When Vig was five years old, his family relocated from Uganda to the United Kingdom after Idi Amin expelled members of the East African country’s South Asian community.
Vig developed a taste for alcohol during the COVID lockdown, according to the court, and admitted to drinking 500ml of whisky earlier that evening of the incident.
Police discovered 100 bottles of champagne, 10 Amazon delivery boxes of whisky bottles, and an empty bottle of Talisker Scotch on the bed at the crime scene.
On the second day of his trial, Vig admitted manslaughter but denied murder because he did not intend to cause his father serious harm.
However, the jury deliberated for less than a day before convicting him of murder.
