Sandeep Singh Walia: Man sentenced over housemate Paramjeet Singh’s death

After stabbing and killing his housemate at their Maidstone rental, an international student told police his victim stabbed himself while “cutting vegetables”.

An Indian national who stabbed and killed his housemate in an “intense burst of anger” told police the victim had accidentally stabbed himself three times while cutting vegetables.

Sandeep Singh Walia, 28, faced the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday, pleading guilty to manslaughter over the death of his housemate, Paramjeet Singh, on September 2, 2019.

The court heard the two men started arguing about 6.40pm after Walia returned home with a friend and told Mr Singh that mate was moving in and he would have to share his room.

The argument quickly escalated to violence, with both men throwing punches at each other in a small corridor between the front door and kitchen of their Maidstone rental.

The fight was broken up by two of the men’s housemates, with Walia turning away to walk into the kitchen.

Police attend the scene on Fischer St in Maidstone on September 2, 2019, where Sandeep Singh Walia stabbed housemate Paramjeet Singh. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Mr Singh, a 25-year-old mechanic working in Dandenong at the time, continued to lash out – striking Walia in the back of the head with a punch.

In what Justice Phillip Priest described as a “hot-blooded, momentary loss of control”, Walia then turned and stabbed his housemate three times to the neck and chest with “severe force”.

Mr Singh, who was later described by his girlfriend as “happy and optimistic about his future in Australia”, collapsed to the floor with the two other men rushing to his aid.

As the two men called triple-0, they were told by Walia to say it was an accident, that he had injured himself “cutting vegetables”.

He washed the knife in the bathtub, returning it to the kitchen as paramedics arrived at 6.59pm.

Despite their best efforts to resuscitate Mr Singh over 20 minutes of CPR, he was declared dead at 7.20pm.

When police arrived, Walia stuck to his story, telling a detective he had arrived home to find his housemate bleeding on the ground in the kitchen.

“I picked up the knife to look at it,” he said. “I don’t know why I did that.”

Police attend the scene on Fischer St in Maidstone on September 2, 2019, where Sandeep Singh Walia stabbed housemate Paramjeet Singh. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

He stuck to his story despite repeated questioning over the following 24 hours at Footscray Police Station until he was charged with murder at 7.19pm on September 3.

Prosecutors later downgraded the charge to manslaughter as part of a plea deal, after accepting they couldn’t prove he had intended to kill or cause serious injury.

But on Monday, prosecutor Neill Hutton argued the “concerted effort out of panic and coldness” made by Walia to hide his involvement indicated a higher moral culpability for the death.

Defence lawyer Dr Theo Alexander read an apology letter from Walia to the court and to Mr Singh’s family who were listening online from India.

“I can only imagine the pain I’ve caused, for that I’m honestly and truly sorry,” he said.

“He was a brother to me, this is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. I’m truly sorry for the loss of a beautiful soul that was taken from you.”

He told the court his family, friends and village had disowned him after learning of the incident and his wife had left him.

In sentencing Walia, Justice Priest found the killing was the result of a “sudden and aberrant response” to the punch.

“You should have responded to the attack in a measured way rather than responding with extreme anger,” he said.

He said until the manslaughter of his roommate Walia had been a man of good character doing the best to better himself as he studied in Australia and worked as a courier.

Walia was sentenced to eight years and six months imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years and six months.

Justice Priest said it was “highly likely” he would be deported from Australia once he had completed his sentence.