When 32-year-old Harleen Kaur was found stabbed at her home in Headingley in Leeds on 5 September 2022, her estranged husband Satpreet Singh Gandhi was arrested the same night. Officers arrived at the address to find his clothes spattered with blood, a blood-covered knife and hand-written notes detailing his grievances with her. He confessed on the spot, although later refused to comment in interviews.
Even with such an apparent wealth of evidence, Channel 5’s Forensics: Murder Scene showed that justice can only be served if the most meticulous of police work is carried out. Following the homicide investigators as they pieced together what had happened to Harleen, the documentary had impressive access, from the “golden hour” – the optimum time to gather evidence in the immediate aftermath of a crime – through to lab testing, CCTV analysis and interviews with the suspect.
There was no wild speculation and no twists. Instead, it focused on the minutiae of the investigative work required not necessarily to secure a conviction (Singh Gandhi pleaded guilty), but to prove premeditation and thereby ensure a just sentence was handed down.
The film clearly wanted to be a responsible and respectful addition to the true crime genre, but this noble ambition was undermined by repeatedly showing the devastating and bloody crime scene – there was an hour and a half to fill, after all. And while officers talked with empathy and humanity about Harleen as a victim, we did not learn enough about her as a person (at least until victim statements from her family in India at the end).
Anyone who has watched a Sunday night crime drama knows how easy it is for botched evidence collection or storage to scupper an investigation and Forensics: Murder Scene emphasised the painstaking care taken by the officers at the scene. While it was reassuring and commendable to see the team scrupulously bagging up the murder weapon and bloodied clothes at Singh Gandhi’s flat after tracing and photographing blood spatter at Harleen’s, it didn’t exactly make for compelling TV. More insight into the logistics of forensic evidence collection would have been welcome.
The team’s rapid understanding that this was not just an argument that had gone horribly wrong was much more enlightening. Harleen’s relatively tidy flat suggested there had not been a prolonged struggle, and the fact that the weapon was not from the flat implied it had been brought there specifically with harm in mind. But suggestion and implication were not enough. Extensive CCTV footage was required to prove that Singh Gandhi had, in fact, been stalking Harleen.
In WhatsApp messages to his family, he bemoaned her making new friends, called her a “bitch” and admitted to hacking her phone and physically assaulting her. During the week before he stabbed her, he had purchased a pack of knives from a local Asda in preparation.
The story the police uncovered was all too familiar: a man who controlled, abused and ultimately murdered a woman over whom he felt ownership. The overwhelming evidence and guilty plea meant Singh Gandhi was given a sentence of 23 years and four months. The good police work we saw had paid off.
But as the film’s coda reminded us, two women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales. In some of those cases – where there’s not such a clear story of abuse, or such damning evidence, or police aren’t as diligent and compassionate – justice may not be served as it was for Harleen Kaur.
Until we find a way to tackle the deep-rooted misogyny that has turned violence against women and girls into a national emergency, there will be so many more like her who pay the ultimate price.
‘Forensics: Murder Scene’ continues next Monday at 9pm on Channel 5.
