Rishmeet Singh wrongly targeted by his murderers

Murder victim: 16-year-old Rishmeet Singh

May 10, 2023

Two teenagers who stabbed a sixteen-year-old boy to death in Southall after mistakenly believing he was in a rival gang have received lengthy jail sentences.

In an attack that lasted just 27 seconds, they killed Rishmeet Singh on Raleigh Road and now are both set to spend nearly as many years in jail.

Vanushan Balakrishnan, of Waylands, Hillingdon, and Ilyas Suleiman of St Jeromes Grove, Hillingdon, both aged 18, had been found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey on Monday 6 March.

At the same court this Wednesday 10 May, Balakrishnan was sentenced to life imprisonment to serve a minimum of 24 years and Suleiman was sentenced to life imprisonment to serve a minimum of 21 years.

Rishmeet had come to the UK just over two years previously with his mother and grandmother to seek asylum from Jalalabad in Afghanistan. His father had been killed by the Taliban six months prior to that, and shortly afterwards 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.”

Ilyas Suleiman and Vanushan Balakrishnan. Picture: Met Police

At around 9pm on 24 November 2021, Rishmeet had just left his friends in the park in Southall and was walking home when he saw his killers running towards him. He turned in the opposite direction to warn his friend to run and then headed down Raleigh Road where he tripped and fell. He was then stabbed first by one of his murderers five times in the back and then the second one joined in stabbing him ten times. It has never been established which of the pair was the initial or subsequent assailant.

Despite the efforts of paramedics, Rishmeet died at the scene and detectives immediately started the process of analysing CCTV footage from the area. Their enquires revealed 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.

The pair left the flat shortly before 8.50pm on pedal bikes. They had changed the clothing they had been wearing all day, armed themselves with knives, put their hoods up, covered their faces with covid-masks, which the jury heard was 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 dumped their bikes near the bridge and chased after Rishmeet on foot, with Balakrishnan attacking him first followed by Suleiman. They were captured on CCTV fleeing the scene, and were clearly identifiable from the distinctive clothing and covid masks they were wearing – including Balakrishnan’s dark trousers with a white stripe behind the knee.

CCTV showed 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 residence.

Police arrested Balakrishnan 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 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 was told that Rishmeet was not involved in any gang and the killers had made a mistake in their choice of victim.

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 by officers.

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

Suleiman’s home was raided on the same say as that of his accomplice but he was not there and was reported missing by his mother two days later. He had gone into hiding, changing his afro hairstyle into braids, but was eventually arrested at an address in Edgware on 9 December. Unlike Balakrishnan, he had dumped his mobile phone.

After the sentencing 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."