A club promoter accused of plotting the murder of

A club promoter accused of plotting the murder of a teenage prodigy in a ‘DIY death chamber’ told the Old Bailey today (fri) it was ‘just a game.

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(Thurs) claimed he only intended to scare him.

Soleman Junglee, 25, covered the walls and floors of a flat with bin liners and newspapers and lured Ravi Gehlot, 18, inside.

The promoter had also prepared an alleged ‘murderer’s kit’ – a holdall containing a hammer, tape, surgical gloves, mopheads, soap and a saw.

Junglee owed Mr Gehlot pnds stlg 100,000 and was intending to kill him instead of repaying the cash, the jury has heard.

But Junglee has told the court he only intended to scare Mr Gehlot.

Mr Gehlot, ran promotions at the top European rave resort Aya Napa on Cyprus and his company VR5 Teenage Parties had been asked to run under 18 nights for London’s legendary Ministry of Sound club.

And Junglee had worked with the teenager on Cyprus.

Junglee has told the jury that he just wanted to lure Mr Gehlot, from Wokingham, Berks, into a ‘horrid scene where he would perceive that his life was being threatened.

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At the flat off Orchardson Street in north west London, Junglee said he drank quarter a bottle of Jack Daniels with coke wondering whether to to through with he plot or not.

When Mr Gehlot arrived he was ‘very upset, very angry and maybe confused,’ Junglee said.

‘He said to me immediately: ”Have you got my money.

I said: ‘Yes.

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‘We got into the room and was shouting and raging and raving about something.

‘He said: ”I want the f****** money back and I want it before I go.

‘I responded by saying: ”What if you do not get it tonight?

‘He didn’t say anything.

He was in a blind rage at this point.

He was clenching his teeth and at first I thought he was going to hit me, at which point I began to get quite frightened.

‘He picked up the hammer which was in the floor and I went to take a swing at me.

I could not believe what was happening.

‘I leaned back and raised my right arm because I could see the strike coming.

‘I pushed his arm down as hard as I could so it fell from his grasp.

‘The whole reason I had set this up was to scare him and now here we are, he had just picked up a hammer and attacked me with it.

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Junglee said when the hammer fell to the floor he reached forward and grabbed it

‘I had gone to hit him with it.

I had never hit anyone in my life before and I didn’t know how to strike someone with a hammer.

‘There was contact but it was a brief one.

I was even more terrified that I has actually done that.

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The promoter said he told Mr Gehlot to calm down adding: ‘He has gone into a frenzy.

He made the assumption I was going to kill him.

When Mr Gehlot panicked and ran from the flat, Junglee said he grabbed him by the throat in the corridor and held him.

‘I went after him thinking if the police come its going to look like an attempted murder.

‘The gesture I wanted to make was: ‘stay here for a moment.

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He said Mr Gehlot ran into the street when he released his grip and he stood ‘dumbfounded’ in the flat for five minutes then started to pack up.

‘I thought I need to go home and go to bed,’ Junglee explained.

But when he left the flat the police were waiting for him outside.

Junglee added: ‘I thought to myself: ‘I’m in a lot or trouble now.

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Junglee said he went about his ‘extravagant threat’ because Mr Gehlot had caused him to ‘lose face’ in front of clients including publicist Max Clifford.

He said he had ‘no intention’ of paying back the pnds stlg 100,000 to Mr Gehlot because he was an ‘extortionist’ who had caused suffering to many others.

During cross-examination prosecutor Miss Sally Howes asked why he had gone to the trouble of taping bin-liners and newspaper to the floor and displaying hack-saws and hammers.

Junglee explained he wanted to instil a genuine fear in Mr Gehlot by making his ‘chamber of horrors’ look realistic but maintained he did not intent to harm him.

Miss Howes asked: ‘Then why did you bring a change of clothes with you?’

Junglee shifted awkwardly before replying: ‘I have absolutely no idea.

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He added: ‘In my mind I wanted to construct a scenario and had to think how someone would prepare themselves for such a task.

‘I had to think in the context of a real murderer and that there would be an excessive amount of blood for such horrible crime.

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Jurors have heard how a murderer’s kit was discovered in the flat containing soap, a towel, a mop with three heads and three air-fresheners.

Again Junglee maintained they were part of his elaborate plan to frighten Mr Gehlot.

He told jurors he accepted the amount of money he owed but never intended to pay up.

‘Mr Gehlot is an extortionist.

The loss of pnds stlg 100,000 to him will not compensate to the loss he has caused others.

‘I did this because I wanted a scenario that would work on his mind.

‘Because of him I have lost a great deal of face in front of individuals from Kiss FM, Capital FM, Max Clifford and the Ministry of Sound.

‘I didn’t want to lose any more credibility – I’d had enough and this was the idea I came up with at the time.

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Junglee, of (11) Highgrove House, Friern Barnet, Middlesex, denies attempted murder on March 21 this year.

The trial continues tomorrow.

(fri)
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