Man guilty of murder in Ayr 25 years ago

A killer has been brought to justice after almost 25 years.

Father-of-four Jagtar Singh – known as Tony – was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow of murdering 38-year-old restaurant manager Ansar Shah, a dad-of-three in the car park at the Armaan Restuarant in Seafield Road, Ayr, on October 4, 1993.

Judge Lord Beckett sentenced Singh to life imprisonment and ordered him to spend at least 17 years behind bars.

Lord Beckett said: “You arrived at the scene equipped with a large knife abd ready to do violence. You stabbed Mr Shah three times in the left chest. You inflicted wounds which he could not have survived.

“You fled the scene and fled the country and managed to escape justice for almost 25 years.

“Mr Shah lost his life and his family whom he was supporting lost him forever.”

One of my Shah's daughters was born a month after his death and never knew her father.

The court heard that a fight broke out involving staff from the restaurant and Singh and his brother Jaspal Singh, 54, from Slough, Berkshire, and their friend Balwant Singh, 59, from Dalmellinton, Ayrshire.

There was bad blood between the two groups because the Armaan workers suspected that Jaspal Singh had reported one of them to immigration authorities.

In evidence Singh claimed he had been stabbed first in the stomach by Mr Shah and said: “It was no revenge. It is my religion if someone attacks you, you attack them.”

Eye witness Sonya Higgins, 56, from Ayr, said: “I saw Tony with a knife. He ran towards Shah and stabbed him more than once on the left side of his left chest. He just fell to the ground.”

Singh brutally stabbed Mr Shah three times. Two of the wounds went through his heart and a third cut into his left lung. Neither of the wounds to the heart was survivable.

Within hours Singh was on a bus to London and was weeks later smuggled into France in the back of a vehicle.

Once in Roman-sur-Aixere in France he built a new life for himself. He married a French woman in 1996 and had a son with her.

They then divorced and he was married again in Indian in 2001 and he and his wife have three daughters.

Singh worked in a factory by day and ran his own restaurant in the evenings.

He would still be in France had it not been for dogged detective work and a stroke of luck for the Police Scotland when Singh flew to his native India on holiday and went via Frankfurt Airport.

Detective sergeant Kenneth McCubbin was part of the cold case team assigned in 2016 to re-investigate the murder.

An arrest warrant had been in force since October 6, 1993 for Singh, but the first name on on it was Avtar.

DS McCubbin went back to basics to find out if Singh had another name which he used on legal documents.

He went to the Indian consulate and searched for records relating to the family tree of his brother Jaspal Singh and found the name Jagtar Singh who had dual Indian- french nationality and the correct date of birth

It was discovered that an Indian passport had been issued to Singh in Paris in 2012.

A European arrest warrant was obtained, but the French authorities, who have a 10-year statute of limitations, were uncooperative.

However, on October 22, 2017 it was discovered that Singh had left for India via Frankfurt and would be returning the same way on November 9, 2017.

The German authorities were contacted by Police Scotland and they detained him as he gotr off the plane.

On November 28, 2017 he was flown back to Prestwick Airport and arrested once he landed on Scottish soil.

Singh, who has no previous convictions, showed no emotion as he was led away to begin his sentence.