Tarikjot Singh jailed for under 23 years for burying Jasmeen Kaur alive in Flinders Ranges

A mother has spoken of her own “life sentence” after the man who killed Jasmeen Kaur “out of anger and revenge” was jailed for almost 23 years.

• Jasmeen warned of killer ex – five weeks later, he buried her alive

Mother of murder victim Jasmeen Kaur – who was buried alive by her ex-boyfriend – has revealed she is living her own “life sentence” after her daughter was “callously” murdered.

In a statement Rashpal Kaur said she was “not happy” after the Supreme Court set a non-parole period for her daughter’s killer, Tarikjot Singh, of 22 years and 10 months.

“I wish that I was not giving this statement and that Jasmeen was still here by my side,” she said.

“I talk to her everyday … I always say goodnight to my daughter.

“Justice has prevailed and I cannot begin to express our relief.”

She said her family welcomed the sentence, but had “already started our life sentence, having to spend the rest of our lives without Jasmeen”.

She thanked the justice system, police and media for their support and making their “tough journey” easier.

Tarikjot Singh was emotionless in the Supreme Court dock as Justice Adam Kimber set the non-parole period for the premeditated and “planned killing” of aged care worker Jasmeen Kaur, after imposing a mandatory life sentence earlier this month.

Tarikjot Singh. Picture: Supplied

Murder victim Jasmeen Kaur.

In sentencing, Justice Kimber said Singh’s crime was “horrific” and that Singh had behaved in a “careful and methodical way” while planning the murder.

“I am unable to find words to adequately describe how Ms Kaur must have felt when you placed her in the grave and buried her,” he said.

“The terror she felt when she was abducted, restrained and kept in the car during the long drive to Moralana Creek is difficult enough to estimate.

“I cannot describe the terror Ms Kaur must have been experiencing when she realised you were burying her alive.

“What is clear is that the way you chose to kill Ms Kaur was callous is the extreme.”

Justice Kimber told Singh he had ample opportunity to withdraw from his plan.

“The enormity of what you were doing must have been clear to you. There was time for reflection. There was time to depart from the plan,” he said.

“Nevertheless you went ahead and killed Ms Kaur.”

He said Singh had killed Ms Kaur out of a “desire to punish” her for ending their relationship in early January 2021.

Singh then stalked her for weeks before he was issued with a stalking caution on February 9, 2021.

“You killed Ms Kaur in order to punish her for not wanting to be in a relationship with you and for going to the police.

“You killed Ms Kaur out of anger and revenge.”

Singh, 23, abducted Ms Kaur from the Plympton aged care home after she finished a shift around 10pm on March 5, 2021.

Having swapped cars with his housemate – who he had also arranged to cover his overnight pub shift – he drove Ms Kaur to Moralana Creek, 40km from Hawker, in the Flinders Ranges, where she was buried alive, a short distance from the roadside, under about 30cm of soil.

“Throughout that trip, Ms Kaur must have been terrified. You cannot have cared,” Justice Kimber said.

“You dug a grave and buried her while she was still alive.

“She was face up. With the intention of killing Ms Kaur you then filled the grave. Ms Kaur was killed when she inhaled the soil that you placed upon her.”

The grieving family of murder victim Jasmeen Kaur visit the site where her body was discovered buried in a shallow grave in the Flinders Ranges in 2021. Picture: Tom Huntley

Items located in a roadside bin in the Flinders Ranges included Jasmeen Kaur's work name badge, duct tape and cable ties. Picture: Courts SA

Her hands were bound, she was blindfolded and her throat had been superficially cut.

Justice Kimber said Singh attempted to “cover his tracks”, having Googled the locations of traffic cameras used to detect unregistered vehicles.

Earlier on the day of the abduction, Singh was captured on CCTV at Bunnings buying cable ties, gaffer tape, gloves and a shovel.

“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the intention to kill Ms Kaur was formed before you purchased those items,” he said.

Singh also swapped his phone’s SIM card into another handset, replacing it into his own after returning from the Flinders Ranges where her left Ms Kaur for dead. He dumped items belonging to Ms Kaur, along with restraints in a bin at Death Rock.

In an earlier hearing, prosecutor Carmen Matteo SC, had told the court Ms Kaur’s murder “involved an uncommon level of cruelty”.

Singh later led police to the gravesite, but told them Ms Kaur had taken her own life. In February this year he pleaded guilty to Ms Kaur’s murder.

In a victim impact statement provided in an earlier hearing, Ms Kaur’s mother, Rashpal Kaur, detailed the broken heart left by the loss of her “precious little girl”.

“I am tormented by the thought of what she endured, I wonder when she realised that she was in mortal danger,” she said.

Singh will be eligible to apply for parole in January 2044.