AURMAN Singh was going about his day with his work colleague, delivering packages for courier company DPD, when he was brutally attacked by a gang of eight masked men.
Armed with weapons that included an axe, machete, shovel and hockey stick, they pounced on the delivery driver on a residential street in Shrewsbury.
His colleague, Kamaljit Singh, saw the attackers getting out of two cars – a black Audi and white Mercedes – and shouted to run.
Kamaljit fled but 23-year-old Aurman was trapped and bludgeoned to death before they departed in their cars.
Kamaljit called the police who, along with medics, raced to the scene on Berwick Avenue. Tragically, Aurman had died.
Four of the men were quickly arrested after a massive manhunt, involving helicopters, that tailed the Audi.
An inside man at DPD was discovered, who helped the gang about Aurman’s whereabouts.
All five were charged and ultimately convicted. But that left four suspects who had escaped in the white Mercedes.
The TV documentary Murder 24/7, shows dramatic doorbell camera footage of the attack that took place on Monday, 21 August 2023 and focuses on the hunt for the men who escaped.
The investigation, led by DCI Mark Bellamy, started locally before turning into an international effort involving West Mercia Police, Interpol, Austrian police… and an empty Walkers crisp packet.
“It was an incredibly complex investigation, which saw us work with police forces across the country and abroad and which led to seven men being found guilty for their part in Aurman’s death,” says Mark Bellamy.
With no eyewitness able to identify the fugitives, detectives laboriously pieced together events using CCTV, phone records and forensics.
The white Mercedes was recovered nearby, in Kingston Road, and Automatic Number Plate Recognition allowed analysts to track the car’s movement before and after it was abandoned. Its journey started in Wolverhampton at the home address of one of the convicted murderers, Arshdeep Singh.
Two doorbell cameras opposite the address show the gang assembling on the morning of the murder in their cars.
CCTV footage captured two men getting out of the Mercedes after the murder.
Shortly after, they were seen at Shrewsbury Railway Station joining two other men. It provided decent facial images.
The team decided to call in the Serious Organised Crime Unit, to try to put names to faces.
Further CCTV showed one of the men in the Mercedes using a phone to make a purchase at a petrol station.
By accessing his social media accounts, SOCU was able to identify key locations used by him and his associates and made simultaneous raids at three addresses. But none of the men were there.
By accessing that data, they were able to ascertain that the phone belonged to Harpreet Singh, who was also a facial match for one of the men seen at the train station.
By accessing his social media accounts, SOCU was able to identify key locations used by him and his associates.
A crisp packet found in the front of the Audi provided a fingerprint for a man called Sehajpal Singh.
He, too, was a positive match for one of the men on CCTV at the train station.
“People generally think that it’s only metal, plastic or glass that we can get fingerprints from,” says Forensic Enhancement Officer, Rachel Watt, who carried out the test. “But actually, a fingerprint can be left on lots of different surfaces.”
Sehajpal’s social media showed him pictured with another man seen on CCTV – Mehakdeep Singh.
The pair shared a house together and are originally from Vienna, Austria.
With the names of three of their suspects, a fourth was supplied by Border Police – Harwinder Singh Turna – who fled to India after the attack.
That left detectives concentrating on the remaining two suspects – Sehajpal Singh and Mehakdeep Singh.
By analysing financial and mobile data, they found that Mehakdeep had recent transactions in Austria.
After detectives contacted Interpol and Austrian Police with their suspicions that Sehajpal and Mehakdeep were in the country, they awaited a response.
“Until we can get those two under arrest, that’s a little bit nerve-wracking,” says DCI Mark Bellamy. “You have to accept that, on occasions, you’ve got to rely on others.”
It turned out that Austrian police were more than up for the job. Sehajpal and Mehakdeep had been stopped by police in Saltzburg, when entering Austria.
They were able to provide their West Mercia counterparts with an address for where they were living, pictures, fingerprints and place of employment – a delivery depot.
The pair were promptly arrested and brought back by West Merica Police to face justice.
The documentary shows dramatic footage of the moment of their arrest as their car was surrounded by unmarked police cars.
In statements to police, Mehakdeep Singh said the intention was just to scare Aurman and not to actually cause him any serious harm.
He said that he had been carrying a hockey stick but hadn’t used it. Having seen how the others were hitting Aurman, he ran off, not wanting the blame for what the others had done to him.
Yet, doorbell footage from Berwick Avenue shows Mehakdeep being the last of the seven to return to the vehicles.
Sehajpal Singh insisted he played no part in the violence, despite carrying a shovel, adding that although he approached, he did not go near as he did not want to be involved.
This, again, contradicts doorbell footage of all the men closing in and striking out.
“Sehjapal and Mekahdeep, along with six other men, carried out this attack in broad daylight on a quiet Shropshire street with only one intention – to kill him,” says DCI Mark Bellamy.
“They used inside information to get hold of Aurman’s delivery route, where they lay in wait for him, before using an arsenal of weapons against him knowing he was defenceless.
“Sehjapal and Mekahdeep, knowing what they had done then fled the country in an attempt to avoid being put in front of the courts and facing the consequences of their actions.”
At their trial in March 2025, both pleaded not guilty of murder but were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 28 years.
In a separate trial a year earlier, the same sentence had been handed out to four other men, who had been captured in the Audi – Arshdeep Singh, 24, Jagdeep Singh, 23, Shivdeep Singh, 27 and Manjot Singh, 24.
The attackers had obtained details of Aurman’s delivery route from 24-year-old Sukhmandeep Singh, a colleague at DPD. He was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter and given a ten-year prison sentence.
In her impact statement, Aurman’s mother, Kuljit Kaur, said, “I find myself struggling to put into words the depth of pain that has consumed me since the loss of my beloved son.
“I would do anything just to have another moment with him and give him one last hug.”
Prosecutors said it was unclear what motivated the attack which killed Aurman Singh but suggested it was linked to unrest at a kabaddi (a traditional South Asian contact team sport) tournament in Derby the previous day.
Sehajpal Singh testified that he had attended the tournament and that a friend had been hospitalised following violence there.
In total, seven men were convicted of Aurman’s murder.
Two suspects – Harpreet Singh and Harwinder Singh Turna – remain on the run. Their whereabouts are unknown.
