UK detectives investigating the murder mystery of an Indian origin woman in Birmingham over 22 years ago are hopeful of cracking the case after getting some DNA clues which could help them to arrest the killer.
The badly decomposed body of 36-year-old Indian origin, Surinder Kaur Varyapraj was found in the first floor bedroom of her home address in Church Hill Road, Handsworth on March 5, 1996 after a local shopkeeper became concerned when Surinder hadn’t been seen for four or five weeks.
She had been strangled, possibly with some sort of ligature, some weeks previously, said West Midlands Police in a release on Thursday (20).
Yet in spite of extensive forensic examinations and house to house enquiries, including 147 witness statements, no-one was ever arrested for her murder. Officers circulated posters of Surinder and appealed for information, but sadly the case remained unsolved.
Now detectives from the cold case review team at West Midlands Police have reviewed evidence and a DNA profile has been uncovered which has led to several people being eliminated from the original enquiry, but it does not match anyone on the national database. There are also unidentified fingerprints taken from the address, which could prove crucial in identifying Surinder’s killer.
Sab Johal, an investigator on the force’s cold case review team, believes that the answers to solving the case rests with the community. He said: "We are keen to trace an Asian man who drove a Jaguar XJS, with the partial registration RAJ, who has been mentioned by other witnesses during the investigation.
"He was believed to rent a room in Vicarage Road, Handsworth, however the man was never identified. We think someone may know who he is or remember the car.”
The last known sighting of Surinder was on February 4, 1996.
Neighbours told detectives that loud banging noises could be heard coming from the row of houses, which included the Surinder’s address sometime just before midnight on February 5, 1996. One neighbour heard a brief high-pitched scream from the same vicinity around the same time.
Surinder was fit and active and well known locally as she used local shops and businesses. She was divorced and lived alone, but was known to have three children, a boy aged 14 and two girls aged 15 and 12 at the time, who lived with her ex-husband.
It’s thought that she had suffered some mental illness in the past and was known to talk to herself.
Anti-Racism protesters come out in support of refugees outside the Cladhan Hotel on September 13, 2025 in Falkirk, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
