Paid men to beat, cut wife’s face.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Bollywood promoter Paul Singh has been found guilty on charge of aggravated mayhem, having to do with a scheme he hatched that paid three men to disfigure his ex-wife.
Singh (55) was convicted by Alameda County Superior Court, in northern California, for orchestrating an attack on his former wife, who identity has remained undisclosed, by hiring three men and paying them just $500 each to cut and beat the woman’s face. The attack, which was planned to look like a routine robbery that went south, was intentionally meant to permanently disfigure the woman.
The conviction means that Singh is looking at spending seven years to life behind bars.
According to reports, Singh was jealous of the fact that his ex-wife was seeing another man, and wanted to get revenge on her by instigating the heinous attack. On the night of February 11, 2013, while walking to her car at around 9:00 AM outside of her home in Fremont, two men attacked her with a knife and a hammer. The attack left Singh’s ex-wife with multiple cuts and bruises on her face.
The victim told police that she believed Singh was responsible. The couple had been in touch since the dissolution of their marriage, but Singh apparently wanted to reconcile and get back together; his ex-wife shot this idea down, and the attack on her happened very shortly after this conversation that, at least in her eyes, completely ended their association.
Investigators were able to obtain the license plate number of the vehicle that drove away from the attack, thanks to witnesses who were nearby during the incident. By finding the owner, 53 year-old Morris Paul Kurtz, the police were then able to use cell phone records to locate the other two accomplices: Donald Harbaugh (54) and Ricardo Rivera (28). All three men have had prior run-ins with the law.
All three men pleaded guilty, with sentencing scheduled to happen on June 9 and 10. The three men fingered Singh as the mastermind behind the plan, testifying against him and leading to the guilty verdict. Singh will be sentenced on June 2.