Two teenagers have been found guilty of murdering an innocent 16-year-old boy who they wrongly thought belonged to a rival gang.
Vanushan Balakrishnan, 18, of Waylands, Hillingdon, and Ilyas Suleiman, 18, of St Jerome’s Grove, Hillingdon, were found guilty on Monday at the Old Bailey of murdering Rishmeet Singh and will be sentenced at the same court on Friday April 28.
The court heard the teenager, who had only been in the UK for two years after fleeing Afghanistan with his mother and grandmother after the Taliban killed his father, had been in a park in Southall with friends on November 24, 2021, and was walking home when he saw two men running towards him.
After warning his friends to run, he tried to escape but tripped and fell. One of his pursuers stabbed him at least five times in the back before the second also stabbed him at least 10 times.
The whole attack lasted 27 seconds and despite the best efforts of police officers and the London Ambulance Rishmeet died at the scene.
Detectives used CCTV footage to track the movements of the two attackers who wore covid masks in a bid to hide their faces but were partly identified by Balakrishnan’s distinctive dark trousers with a white stripe behind the knee.
From analysing their mobile phones, detectives established Suleiman booked a taxi at 21.24pm to his home address, and then onto Balakrishnan’s home address.
Balakrishnan was arrested on suspicion of murder at his home address on December 2, 2021, and officers discovered song lyrics describing details of the murder written on his phone and in a notebook.
Also on Balakrishnan’s mobile phone was an image of a long knife on his bed with what appears to be blood on it – taken on the night of the murder.
Suleiman went into hiding but was eventually found in Edgware having changed his hairstyle from the day of the attack and thrown away the mobile phone he had been using.
Rishmeet’s mother Gulinder said: “Rishmeet was my only child, and he had his whole life ahead of him. No words could ever explain or put into context how I have felt since Rishmeet was taken from us.
“He has been raised with so much love and now he’s gone. I am struggling to understand as to how and why this happened to my baby boy. I feel I have lost everything and my life is over.”
She said her son wanted to become a police officer and was “loved by all that knew him”, adding: “I have lost my husband and now I have lost my only child, my son. Justice is finally served for Rishmeet but their sentence will never be enough for me. They have taken my whole life away from me and Rishmeet will never come home again.”
Detective Inspector Laura Semple, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said the pair had gone out “that day with the intention of ending someone’s life.”
She said: “Poor Rishmeet was simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time. My thoughts remain with Rishmeet’s family and friends, who have shown extraordinary courage throughout, including during the trial where they were forced to re-live Rishmeet’s horrific last moments."
