- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
A gambling addict of Bangladeshi origin has claimed that he was “not in this world” when he stabbed his wife more than 60 times following an argument.
Jalal Uddin, 47, “cut, stabbed, slashed or chopped at” his wife Asma Begum, 31, after they argued abiut him spending money at the bookies.
The Indian restaurant chef and his wife had regular fights over money, and the day before the killing Begum had sent Uddin to take £200 out of her account for the family’s food and expenses.
But after withdrawing the cash Uddin “went straight next door to the betting shop”, the court heard.
Uddin said Begum’s brother had borrowed £200 so he felt justified in taking the money.
But once he returned home, a furious row erupted.
Uddin was in the kitchen holding a knife when they started fighting.
“She asked for the money. We were arguing about the money,” he said, speaking through a Bengal interpreter.
“I said: ‘I can’t give you money now.’
“Then she came at me with the knife to stab me.”
“At that point I snatched the knife. When I saw the blood I lost it. I thought she was going to kill me.
“I tried to save myself and struck her back with the knife.
“My head was not working at that time. I was not in this world at that time..”
Uddin was known as the “angry Indian” at an east London betting shop because he would hit gaming machines when he was losing, it was claimed.
Uddin had been verbally abusive and violent towards his wife and in 2016, she reported him to police for beating her when they argued about money.
Uddin, of City Island Way, Canning Town, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murder.
The trial continues.
