A political dispute has erupted over the legal exemption allowing Sikhs to carry kirpans in public after Reform UK pledged to repeal the protection following a recent murder conviction.
The debate was triggered by the case of Vickrum Digwa, 23, who was convicted of murdering 18-year-old university student Henry Nowak in Southampton using a 21cm kirpan, a ceremonial blade carried by some Sikhs as an article of faith. Digwa's mother was also convicted of assisting an offender by helping remove the weapon after the attack.
