Widower to killer: See you in 20 years

Deepak Nagpal pleaded guilty to the murders of Ravneet Sangha and her daughter Anna Sangha. File photo / Alan Gibson

As Deepak Nagpal, 24, learned he was facing a lengthy prison term, the man who once cared for him "like a brother" burst towards him, shouting and shaking with anger.

Dev Sangha, whose 37-year-old wife Ravneet and 2-year-old daughter Anna were brutally murdered by Nagpal in June, rushed at the dock seconds after his former boarder was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison.

Plainclothes police officers and security staff in the High Court at Rotorua restrained the distraught Mr Sangha as Nagpal was led away.

Outside court, Mr Sangha would not reveal what he had shouted in Punjabi but close friend Bahadur Singh told the Weekend Herald: "He said: 'See you in 20 years'."

"He's very, very upset still. They cared for this man like a brother and this is what he did," said Mr Singh.

"It's very sad, he's struggling."

Mr Sangha later apologised for his behaviour but rejected Nagpal's claims that he was remorseful, saying "He's all fake".

"I respect this country's law and I'm sorry I shouldn't do that but the only thing I could see was my Anna's blood on the floor," said Mr Sangha.

"He [Nagpal] spent a year and a half with me and my family. I don't think it's going to get any better. I don't feel like working."

A frail-looking Nagpal, who was aided by an interpreter, listened solemnly to yesterday's proceedings.

The court heard how he had stabbed Ravneet Sangha at least 30 times in her arms as she tried to defend herself in her Otumoetai, Tauranga, home.

Nagpal stabbed Mrs Sangha more than 100 times using multiple knives from the kitchen.

Justice Timothy Brewer said Anna Sangha must have seen her mother being attacked, because forensic investigators later found her blood on the little girl's shirt.

She tried to run away but Nagpal carried her back to the laundry, where he stabbed her in the face, neck and throat until she was dead.

He then placed her body in the washing machine.

"You loaded your clothes in the machine and you turned it on with Anna's body still inside," said Justice Brewer.

Nagpal then had a shower and put on clean clothes before he stole Mrs Sangha's jewellery - including her wedding necklace and wedding rings. Over the next two days he took $6853 from the Sanghas' bank accounts, sending some money back to his family in India and booking a one-way flight to Delhi.

But later, he admitted the murders to an associate.

Justice Brewer told the court how Nagpal came from a modest family in India who had a fruit retail business.

The eldest son and academically bright, Nagpal never worked and his family put him through university, where he gained a commerce degree.

They sent him to New Zealand with the hope of one day joining him.

Nagpal told his friend the Sangha family owed him money, which the Weekend Herald understands to be $17,000 for a failed restaurant venture, and had refused to pay it back.

Justice Brewer said Nagpal's actions did not show remorse.

"The reports I have read say that it was only when you were imprisoned and began to think about what you had done that the enormity of your actions came home to you."

Western Bay of Plenty Area police commander Inspector Mike Clement described the murders as "at the top end" of homicides he and his staff had investigated in terms of their brutality and callousness.

"When you are dealing with a 2-year-old child, it just adds another dimension in terms of what the investigators and those involved feel."