Man found guilty of killing Nepalese student with meat cleaver

A STUDENT was found guilty today of murdering his classmate's wife with a meat cleaver and chopping up her body.

• Victim Khusbu Shah was also a student in Glasgow

Roshan Dantis, 30, was convicted of killing 23-year-old Khusbu Shah by the High Court in Glasgow.

The Nepalese student's body was found on June 1 last year dumped near her home in the city.

Dantis, who studied business and technology at Strathclyde University with Mrs Shah's husband Nagendra, was also found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice for trying to cover up the crime.

And he was convicted of attempting to extort 120,000 and a television set from Mr Shah.

The jury took less than two hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts on all three charges.

Dantis moved to the UK with his wife Astrid in September 2008 to further his studies.

The Indian engineering graduate enrolled on a business and technology course where he met Mr Shah. He had previously worked in the banking industry in his home country and in Dubai.

The pair became friends and through him Dantis met Khusbu Shah.

The trial heard how he got a taxi to the couple's home in Coventry Drive, Dennistoun, on the morning of June 1, giving the driver the false name Abdul.

He is then thought to have launched his assault, strangling her, before cutting her head and hands off.

Dantis put his victim's body in a blue holdall which he had bought from Argos the week before and which was later found dumped in bushes behind the flat.

Plastic bags containing Mrs Shah's head and hands, the cleaver, a towel, disposable gloves and a blood-stained hooded top were concealed in a railway embankment at a footpath between Whitevale Street and Bathgate Street.

Mr Shah tried contacting his wife at 11.55am as he was supposed to be meeting her at lunchtime.

Later that day he received a text message from Mrs Shah's phone which read: "We have ur wife. Don't call police. We are watchin u.

"If anyone is told we will kill her and u."

Judge Lord Pentland sentenced Dantis to life with a minimum of 24 years for the murder.

He described him as a "vicious and cold-blooded murderer" who carried out the crime with "chilling composure".

Lord Pentland said: "Khusbu Shah was a vibrant and loving young wife and mother whose husband was one of your closest friends.

"The jury has heard that you strangled her, then cut off her head and hands. The exact motive for this appalling crime may never be known but it may well have been a scheme to extort money from Mr Shah."

The judge said the murder had had a devastating effect on Mrs Shah's young child and other members of her family.

Dantis was sentenced to a further ten years for each of the other two crimes which will run concurrent to the murder sentence.

In a statement released on behalf of Mrs Shah's family by the Crown Office today, Mr Shah said: "Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for their support to our family during these painful months.

"Khusbu was my beautiful wife, Nikhil's perfect mum and Mr and Mrs Jaiswal's lovely daughter. She was always cheerful, caring, friendly and helpful. She managed to fit everything in so well with her life: work, study and family. We miss everything about her and we always will.

"She was brutally killed by a ruthless evil man.

"My four-year-old son, Nikhil, has had to cremate his 23-year-old mum. I wish no other child to have to go through the same pain.

The statement continued: "Today Roshan Dantis, has been found guilty of murdering my beautiful wife in the most terrible and terrifying way. He deserves a life sentence for his heinous crime and our family is satisfied that he has been brought to justice.

"We would like to thank the police, the prosecution and everyone involved in bringing Roshan Dantis to justice today for his truly evil and wicked action.

"In particular we would like to thank Sergeant Kelly and Sergeant Maider for the support they have given to our family in their role as family liaison officers.

"Finally to my wife: Khusbu, I love you and miss you very much."

Speaking after the verdict, Lesley Thomson, area procurator fiscal for Glasgow and Strathkelvin, said: "This attack has brought untold suffering to those who knew and loved Khusbu.

"Dantis planned his evil crime in calculated detail and, in a callous betrayal of his friendship with the Shah family, pretended to Mrs Shah's husband that his wife was probably safe in an attempt to extort money from him.

"Dantis subjected Khusbu to a terrifying ordeal but as prosecutors we, with the police, were determined to ensure that this terrible crime would not escape justice.

"I would like to express my sincere condolences to all who knew Khusbu and in particular to her husband Nagendra and their young son Nikhil who have been denied many years of family life together by Dantis' wicked and evil conduct."