A chilling new Channel 4 drama will revisit the horrifying murder of TV executive Gagandip Singh, who was beaten unconscious before being left to die in a burning car in south-east London.
A drama based on the murder of TV executive Gagandip Singh, who was beaten and left to die in a burning car, has been announced by Channel 4. Harvinder Shoker was jailed for life in 2012 with a minimum of 22 years for the 2011 murder of 21-year-old Mr Singh.
He and Darren Peters beat Mr Singh unconscious and bundled him into the boot of a car which was then set on fire in Blackheath, south-east London.
The killing is the subject of a new upcoming drama titled Vengeance: Murder On The Heath, which draws on police interviews, text messages, court documents and original interviews, Channel 4 said. Mr Singh was lured to the scene of the attack by then 19-year-old medical student Mundill Mahil. It emerged during the trial that Mr Singh allegedly tried to rape Mahil six months before he died.
She then confided in Shoker, known as Ravi, about the attempted sex attack and he recruited Peters to help in the plot against Mr Singh. Mahil lured Mr Singh to her university house in Brighton, pretending that she wanted to talk to him. He did not know that Shoker and Peters were lying in wait in the bedroom, where he was viciously beaten.
The new drama will star British Asian actors including Sasha Desouza-Willock (Adult Material) as Mahil, Dee Ahluwalia (Buddha Of Suburbia) as Gagandip Singh, Ikky Kabir (Bait) as Harvinder ‘Ravi’ Shoker and Safiyya Ingar (The Witcher) as Amandipkaur Singh.
The Halcyon’s Heart Films production will be written and directed by Bafta winner Aysha Rafaele and produced by Meeshan Saxena and Arzoo Patankar.
Rafaele said: “As a British Asian filmmaker with a background in documentaries, I am fascinated by real stories from our community that are both specific to the culture but also resonate well beyond it.
“Everything about the shocking murder of Gagandip Singh and the circumstances surrounding it was to prove extraordinary.
“How young everyone involved in the case was, how an accusation of attempted rape led to these young people taking the law into their own hands – playing at being God themselves – instead of just going to the police, and how this vigilante-style justice backfired so horrifically.”
Shaminder Nahal, head of specialist factual at Channel 4, said: “This powerful and gripping series takes us straight into the hearts and minds of a group of young people navigating a messy world of blurred lines, fear, shame and violence.
“Aysha Rafaele, who has created and contributed to an astonishing body of work at Channel 4, brings her unique vision and storytelling to an urgent series that asks big questions about modern Britain, what justice means and whether revenge can ever be justified.”
Peters was sentenced to 12 years for Mr Singh’s manslaughter, while Mahil was handed six years for grievous bodily harm.
Don’t miss out on the biggest local stories. Sign up to our MySouthLondon newsletter HERE for all the latest daily news and more
