Jobanpreet Singh is on trial in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Jobanpreet Singh is on trial in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“You’re one of the chosen ones.”
Those were the words, business owner-turned-prison inmate Jaspal Singh told jurors today, that convinced him he had a role to play in the murder of South Auckland radio host Harnek Singh.
The Radio Virsa co-founder was brutally attacked by a group of strangers after his ute was rammed while he was pulling into the driveway of his Wattle Downs home in December 2020, leaving him on the verge of death with dozens of stab wounds. He had courted controversy in the past among more conservative sects of Sikhism due to his more liberal viewpoint towards the religion.
But although his hundreds of thousands of listeners are mostly overseas, a group of men in Auckland had taken such offence to his viewpoint that they decided he needed to die, the witness said today in the High Court at Auckland as he testified against five former co-defendants.
Prosecutor Luke Radich had the witness focus on one former co-defendant in particular - a man with name suppression who is accused of having planned and organised the murder attempt.
Jaspal Singh, 42, said he first learned of the plan about a week before the attack after he was called to the other man’s house early in the morning. They were sitting alone in the sunroom of the home when the other man began discussing the plan.
“He said he needed him [the radio host] gone,” Jaspal Singh testified. “He said he had all the arrangements sorted.”
Radio host Harnek Singh (pictured) was stabbed dozens of times, he told jurors last week in the attempted murder trial of four men.
“All you need to do is drive,” Jaspal Singh recalled the man telling him.
The initial plan, the witness said, included a motorbike with two other men who would approach the radio host’s car, a getaway car that he’d be driving and a gun.
“It was basically a hit on Harnek Singh,” the witness told jurors, explaining that the job was to take place just before Christmas that year.
“I was shocked at that time,” he said of his initial reaction. “He sits down, closes his eyes and says, ‘You’re one of the chosen ones’, and I believed him.
“I said, ‘Yes’.”
A man with name suppression is on trial in the High Court at Auckland, accused of orchestrating the attempted murder of radio host Harnek Singh. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Prosecutors have said six men ended up tailing the radio host on the evening of December 23, 2020 as he returned home from a marathon four-hour broadcast at the Papatoetoe temple where his recording studio was situated. Three of them - Jaspal Singh included - have pleaded guilty, while three other men are now on trial alongside the man with name suppression.
The current defendants include Jobanpreet Singh, who is accused of directly participating in the attack; Jagraj Singh and Gurbinder Singh, who allegedly followed Harnek Singh in a Toyota Prius, offering encouragement or support to the attackers; and Sukhpreet Singh, who is charged with being an accessory after the fact for allegedly welcoming two of the attackers into his home following the incident.
Jaspal Singh said he didn’t discuss the matter again until the morning before the attack, when he was running errands with the man with name suppression and was directed to park on the side of the road.
“He told me, ‘This is where Harnek works. There’s his ute right there. The job I told you about is going to happen tonight’.”
But it wasn’t until later that evening that Jaspal Singh said he learned the plan had changed, no longer involving a motorbike or a gun.
Gurbinder Singh (left) and Sukhpreet Singh are two of the five men on trial in the High Court at Auckland in relation to the alleged attempted murder of radio host Harnek Singh. Photo / Jason Oxenham
He said he met that evening with the man with name suppression and with Sarvjeet Sidhu, 27, who pleaded guilty to attempted murder just days before the current trial began. The man with name suppression handed over a black duffle bag, he said.
“He told us, ‘There’s stolen [number] plates in the bag. There’s knives, bats’,” the witness said. “[He said], ‘You’re the chosen ones. You’ve got to do the service’. And he patted us on the back.”
He was speechless, he said, explaining that he thought he was being recruited to do something for the greater good.
“He told us that Nekki [the radio host’s nickname] had to go, that he had to die,” Jaspal Singh said.
The meeting lasted only about 10 minutes, and the three men went their separate ways, he recalled. But the witness said he met up later that night with Sarvjeet Sidhu, who had a third man with him: Jobanpreet Singh, who is currently on trial.
Jagraj Singh is on trial in the High Court at Auckland, accused of aiding or encouraging the attempted murder of radio host Harnek Singh. Photo / Jason Oxenham
They opened the duffle bag, examined the contents - a bat, a stick and several knives of assorted sizes - and replaced the number plates on his SUV, Jaspal Singh said.
Then all three piled into his black Ford Explorer and drove to the radio host’s studio, parking on a side street and listening live to the programme so they so reviled, he said.
“We were listening ... to see what time he would finish,” Jaspal Singh explained.
It wouldn’t be much later when the trio, along with two other vehicles, would follow Harnek Singh home and unleash a torrent of violence on him, according to the timeline prosecutors have already alleged. However, the witness’ testimony was cut short today as jurors were sent home promptly at 5pm.
Jaspal Singh is expected to continue his account when the trial resumes before Justice Mark Woolford and the jury tomorrow morning.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
