लंदन वार्ता: नई विश्व व्यवस्था لندن وارتا: نیا عالمی نظام – Satvinder Singh Juss, a prominent Sikh academic and professor of law at King’s College London, has described the murder of 18-year-old university student Henry Nowak as “extremely shameful” and one of deep sorrow, for the Sikh community and warned that the case risks undermining Britain’s multicultural fabric. When at night he first saw the footage of him dying he said he felt utterly desolated and wept.

Henry Nowak, a first-year student, was stabbed to death in Southampton on 3 December 2025 by 23-year-old Vickrum Singh Digwa. Later, Digwa was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years in June 2026. The case has sparked intense national debate over policing, race relations, and the carrying of religious blades.

In a podcast interview with broadcaster Pervaiz Alam, Professor Satvinder Juss criticised the initial police response, in which officers handcuffed the dying Henry Nowak after Digwa falsely claimed he had been the victim of a racist attack and that his turban had been knocked off. Henry Nowak repeatedly told officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe, but his pleas were reportedly not believed. When eventually arrested, as Nowak lost all consciousness and slipped away, Digwa was not even handcuffed.

Professor Juss said: “This is a very shameful and painful matter… Historically, it has never happened before that a Sikh boy, in anger, pulled out his kirpan and killed someone.”

He also took issue with the judge’s sentencing remarks, which repeatedly referred to the weapon as a “knife”. Professor Juss stressed that the kirpan is a religious article, one of the Five Ks of Sikhism, intended as a symbol of restraint and nobility, not an offensive weapon. He argued that English institutions still fail to understand this distinction. Digwa did not use ‘a large Sikh dagger, ‘ as the judge said, but an Afghan Peshkabz, which he had no business carrying.

“The English institutions still do not understand that the kirpan is not a knife. It is a religious article… It has a specific shape and is part of the Panj Kakkar. It is not meant to be carried alone as a weapon.”

“The allegation being made here is that there is two-tier policing, a double standard… This is going backwards on the battles we fought and won — that ethnic minorities should not face discrimination.”

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