Roshan Dantis - 'One of most dangerous murderers ever'

• Khusbu Shah with husband Nagendra. Picture: Complimentary

Roshan Dantis, 30, was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow of murdering Khusbu Shah, 23. The young mother's body was found on 1 June last year, dumped near her home in the city.

Dantis was also found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by trying to cover up the crime and of attempting to extort 120,000 and a television set from Mrs Shah's husband, Nagendra.

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

Dantis, who studied business and technology at Strathclyde University with Mr Shah, was led handcuffed down to the cells with his head bowed.

The judge, Lord Pentland, gave him a mandatory life sentence and said he must serve at least 24 years.

'Best friend' was driven by jealousy to plan killing and extortion

He told Dantis he was "vicious and cold-blooded murderer" and said: "Khusbu Shah was a vibrant and loving young mother whose husband was one of your best friends. You strangled her and then cut off her head and hands. The exact motive for this crime may never be known.

"But, whatever your motive, you planned this crime well in advance and put these plans into effect with chilling composure."

Dantis, who claimed an unidentified gunman had ordered him to the Shahs' flat to remove the body, 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 Dantis met Mrs Shah.

The trial heard how he got a taxi to the couple's home in Dennistoun, on the morning of 1 June, giving the driver the false name Abdul. Armed with a cleaver bought from a Chinese supermarket, he is then thought to have attacked the Nepalese student, strangling her before severing her head and hands.

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

Plastic bags containing the head and hands, along with the cleaver, a towel, disposable gloves and a blood-stained hooded top, were hidden in a railway embankment. They had been ditched, the prosecution said, like "pieces of waste".

Mr Shah, 32, 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 her phone that read: "We have ur wife. Don't call police. We are watchin u. If anyone is told we will kill her and u."

Mr Shah met Dantis and told him about the text, but his "best friend" urged him not to contact police. When he went against his advice, Mr Shah recalled how Dantis "went dark and his lips dry". Mr Shah said he became suspicious and informed the police, telling the trial his wife would not have opened the door to anyone other than Dantis.

In her closing speech, Dorothy Bain, QC, prosecuting, described Dantis as "a monster capable of the grossest betrayal of a friend's trust and capable of a level of premeditated violence and cruelty that is beyond understanding".

After the verdict, Mr Shah said his "beautiful" wife and "perfect mum" had been "brutally killed by a ruthless, evil man".

He went on: "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.

"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."

Det Supt Michael Orr, of Strathclyde Police, described Dantis as "one of the most dangerous murderers Scotland has known". He said: "(This was] a truly shocking case that evidenced a level of preparation and clinical planning that is rarely, if ever, uncovered in a murder investigation."