The trial of the Southall newspaper owner accused

The trial of the Southall newspaper owner accused of smuggling
more than #300,000 worth of heroin into the country, heard today (
Friday) how his newspaper office was burned to the ground and the
editor killed.

Customs officer Daniel Curry told Isleworth Crown Court the
offices of the Sandesh Weekly in Dilloway Yard ‘were completely gutted
and editor suffered injuries from which he died some five days later.

So there is now a murder enquiry’.

The fire in July 1984 was caused by ‘someone throwing a petrol
bomb’, he said.

The newspaper which Ajit Singh Sat-Bhambra, 51, now runs from
his home in Burns Ave, Southall, is a weekly paper printed in three
Indian languages and distributed in this country, said Mr Curry.

He then gave evidence of months of observations kept by
customs officers on Sat-Bhambra.

They mostly concerned meetings
between the defendant, serving prisoner Arnold Futerman, 62, of Linden
Rd, Plumpstead, and Peter Slowey of Finsbury Park.

Slowey wanted the heroin brought through Heathrow in May 1984
and Futerman acted as go-between, said Mr Nicholas Freeman,
prosecuting.

Sat-Bhambra denies being concerned in the illegal importation
of the four and a half kilos of heroin at Heathrow on May 30 1984.

The trial continues.

.

.

ends*