16-year-old killed after being wrongly targeted

Ilyas Suleiman and Vanushan Balakrishnan. Picture: Met Police

March 6, 2023

Two teenagers who stabbed a 16-year-old boy to death after wrongly assuming he was a member of a rival gang, have been found guilty of murder.

Rishmeet Singh was walking on his own on Raleigh Road in Southall when he was approached by Vanushan Balakrishnan and Ilyas Suleiman, both aged 18 from Hillingdon.

Rishmeet, who had no gang affliations and was considering a career in the police, had been hanging out with friends in the park and was on his way home at around 9pm on 24 November 2021 when his two assailants ran towards him. He ran back in the direction of the park shouting ‘run, run’ to his friends that remained there.

Unfortunately, he tripped and fell and was set upon. Balakrishnan stabbed him five times in the back, and a few moments later Suleiman inflicted at least ten more knife wounds. They then fled leaving Rishmeet bleeding on the ground. The whole incident lasted on 27 seconds.

A member of the public phoned the emergency services, but paramedics were unable to save him and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Murder victim: 16-year-old Rishmeet Singh

Police officers form the Specialist Crime Command began an investigation and soon found that there was ample CCTV evidence to confirm Rishmeet’s movements.

It was found that Balakrishnan and Suleiman, who were aged 17 at the time of the attack, had spent most of the day at a flat in Austin Road, Southall, with seven other people.

Having changed clothes putting on hoodies and covid facemasks to hide their appearance, they left the flat about 10 minutes before the attack on pedal bikes. The jury at the trial at the Old Bailey was told this in a bid to hide their appearance as they had intended to go out and commit murder.

They cycled to the canal towpath where it is believed they saw Rishmeet say goodbye to his friends on the bridge above and walk off alone – making him an easy target.

They are captured on CCTV fleeing the scene, and are clearly identifiable from the distinctive clothing and covid masks they were wearing – including Balakrishnan’s dark trousers with a white stripe behind the knee.

Raleigh Road, Southall. Picture: Google Streetview

CCTV showed that they returned to the bridge to collect their bikes, and cycled back to the flat in Austin Road. They left the bikes outside and went into the flat. From analysing their mobile phones, detectives established Suleiman booked a taxi at 9.24pm to his home address, and then onto Balakrishnan’s home address.

Balakrishnan was arrested on suspicion of murder at his home on 2 December 2021.

Officers recovered the clothing he had worn most of the day before and after the murder, as well as a notebook containing lyrics that he had written, with some describing unique features of Rishmeet’s murder, including Rishmeet running and tripping over. Further lyrics were also found on his mobile phone.

A review of Balakrishnan’s phone also showed that he was reading news reports about Rishmeet’s murder, googling only an hour after the murder, including tributes from his family about his good character and their belief that he was stabbed for the fake Gucci pouch he was wearing.

On 28 November 2021, Balakrishnan wrote a note on his phone saying, “Saw news statement it says a good yute but he was out with paigions [enemies.]”

“Stupid media it was a glide not for some stupid s*** he wears”

A ‘glide’ is entering gang territory with the intention of using violence against a rival gang. However, the court heard that Rishmeet was not in a gang and the defendants were mistaken in their choice of target.

Just six hours before his arrest on 2 December, Balakrishnan wrote on his phone: “He tripped and got dipped into my dank.”

Also, on Balakrishnan’s mobile phone was an image of a long knife on his bed with what appears to be blood on it – taken at 10.19pm on the day of the murder. The knives were never recovered.

Officers also found Suleiman’s college enrolment form in Balakrishnan’s room, proving the pair knew each other.

Suleiman was being sought by police in connection with Rishmeet’s murder but he could not be located. Officers executed a search warrant at his home address on 2 December 2021. He was reported as missing by his mother two days later. The court heard that Suleiman had gone into hiding as he knew he was being hunted.

He was eventually arrested at an address in Edgware on 9 December 2021. He had changed his afro hairstyle from the day of the murder, and now wore his hair in braids. The mobile phone he used on the day of the murder to book the taxi was also no longer contactable, in a bid to hide evidence from officers.

Rishmeet came to the UK in October 2019 with his mother and grandmother to seek asylum from Jalalabad in Afghanistan. His father was killed by the Taliban six months prior to that, and shortly after they tried to kidnap Rishmeet – forcing the family to flee to the UK.

In a statement, Rishmeet’s mother Gulinder said, “Rishmeet was my only child, and he had his whole life ahead of him. No words could ever explain or put into context how I have felt since Rishmeet was taken from us. He has been raised with so much love and now he’s gone. I am struggling to understand as to how and why this happened to my baby boy. I feel I have lost everything and my life is over.

“I will never get over losing him in this way. I will not see him grow up into a young man. I will not see him leave college. I will not see him fulfil his aspirations. I will not see him learn to drive. I will not see him fall in love and get married. I will not become a grandmother and see my son grow old. I have been robbed of so many future events.

“Rishmeet was attending college completing a Public Service course and his ambition was to become a police officer, all he wanted to do was to help people. Rishmeet was well loved by all that knew him, he was a faithful boy and was very caring in his nature.

“I have lost my husband and now I have lost my only child, my son. Justice is finally served for Rishmeet but their sentence will never be enough for me. They have taken my whole life away from me and Rishmeet will never come home again.”

Detective Inspector Laura Semple, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said, “Rishmeet was an innocent, young 16-year-old who had his whole life ahead of him. He had just spent an enjoyable evening with his friends and was making the short walk home when he was callously chased down and knifed to death by Balakrishnan and Suleiman. Between them, they stabbed him 15 times while he was defenceless on the floor. There is never an excuse to murder someone in cold blood, but this case is made even more tragic by the fact that Rishmeet was wrongly targeted by his attackers.

“Balakrishnan and Suleiman left the flat that day with the intention of ending someone’s life. Poor Rishmeet was simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time. My thoughts remain with Rishmeet’s family and friends, who have shown extraordinary courage throughout, including during the trial where they were forced to re-live Rishmeet’s horrific last moments."

Balakrishnan and Suleiman will be sentenced at the same court on Friday, 28 April.