A woman burnt to death by her estranged husband was highly vulnerable because of his “culturally entrenched, patriarchal, male-entitlement attitude”, a Victorian coroner has found.
Sargun Ragi did all she could to protect herself from a husband “determined to exact vengeance” on her before the domestic violence victim was murdered on 4 October 2010.
Ragi had left her husband, Avjit Singh, when he tracked her down with help from his friends and a private investigator. Singh broke into Ragi’s home, stabbed her during a prolonged attack and set her on fire, the coroner, Ian Gray, said. She died from her burns.
Singh died in hospital later that night also from burns but Gray said it was impossible to know whether he had intentionally set himself alight or had accidentally become caught in the blaze. Unlike Ragi his clothing had not been doused in petrol.
About 10 months earlier Ragi had obtained a spousal visa to move from India to Australia with Singh, an Australian citizen born in India. They had been partnered through an arranged marriage.
After moving to Australia Singh would lock his wife inside the home, threaten her with deportation if she did not have sex with him and feed her only once each day, Gray said.
In August 2012, Ragi escaped through a window, and made a statement to police saying that her husband had assaulted, raped and imprisoned her. An intervention order was issued prohibiting Singh from contacting Ragi.
With the help of a legal cost consultant, Ragi also contacted four family violence welfare organisations, moved into a new home and began seeing another man.
“It was to no avail,” Gray said on Friday.
“Ms Ragi was highly vulnerable, and it appears that cultural factors were also against her. Mr Singh appears to have been motivated by a culturally entrenched, patriarchal, male-entitlement attitude.”
Singh went to great lengths to find his former partner, hiring a private investigator who police have been unable to track down to this day, the court heard. A friend also helped him and contacted Ragi on Singh’s behalf. This constituted an intervention order breach, Gray said.
“It is important to note that there was no formal intervention directed at attempting to educate Mr Singh in relation to what constitutes family violence in Victoria and Australia, or direct or refer him to a behaviour change type program,” Gray said.
“I recommend that the state of Victoria, working in conjunction with the family violence sector, give consideration to the development of education programs for culturally and linguistically diverse men who are perpetrators of family violence.”
It was the first time a Victoria coroner has made such a recommendation.
Gray also recommended that Victoria police, when assessing whether a perpetrator might harm their victim again, review previous risk assessments relating to the same offender and share any new information with police previously involved.
Ragi had reported to police that Singh had been trying to phone her but police officers did not carry out a risk assessment to determine the history of Singh’s abuse and if future harm was likely, Gray said.
“Ms Ragi appears to have done all that she could in terms of reporting contacts to, by and on behalf of Mr Singh, including those that constituted breaches of an intervention order,” Gray found.
“In my view, the police failed to accord sufficient urgency and seriousness to Ms Ragi’s reports of Mr Singh’s telephone contact breaches of the intervention order.”
Gray also found that Singh had called the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to tell them that he was worried Ragi would accuse him of inflicting family violence against her. Singh was worried she would try to use his abuse against her as grounds for changing her visa from a spousal one.
Gray found the department had no procedures in place to refer the call from Singh to police. He noted that the department is reviewing its procedures and called on it to make any changes public once that review was complete.
“Ms Ragi had done all she could to ensure her own protection from her husband through the legal system,” Gray found.
“This is a shocking case of family violence perpetrated by a man seemingly determined to exact vengeance.”
