A 25-year-old Indian man, Sriram Ambarla, who was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend in London, had searched how to kill humans with a knife on the internet right before the attack.
He slashed Sona Biju’s throat before stabbing her nine times at a London restaurant in 2022. The incident was caught on camera.
Ambarla, from Hyderabad, attacked Biju, 23, at the restaurant where she worked after threatening to murder her if she did not agree to marry him.
When Ms Biju turned him down by saying that she “did not want to live by his rules”, Ambarla grabbed her by the neck and began stabbing her. She survived the vicious attack but had to spend a month at a hospital in a critical condition.
Ambarla was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Thursday, April 25, 2024, after pleading guilty to attempted murder. He also pleaded guilty to having a knife without lawful reason in a public place, for which he was sentenced to 12 months in prison concurrently.
During his sentencing hearing, the court was told that moments before Ambarla attacked, he searched online for “What happens if a foreigner murders someone in the UK”, “How easy is it to kill someone with a knife” and “How to kill a human instantly with a knife.
In addition to the prison sentence, Ambarla was given a lifetime restraining order to never make contact with the victim.
The 2022 attack came after Ambarla manipulated and physically and mentally abused Ms Biju for years, the court was told.
The two began dating in 2017 after they met at a Hyderabad college.
However, the relationship quickly turned abusive, leading to their split around 2019 during which Ambarla used threats of self-harm to control Ms Biju.
He repeatedly showed up at her house unexpectedly and tried to blackmail her into marrying him, the victim said.
In 2022, both Ambarla and Ms Biju moved to the UK 2022 to pursue a master’s degree at the University of East London but the abuse continued.
Ambarla would regularly contact the restaurant she worked at to talk to her and order food in hopes that she would deliver it to his house
Weeks after they moved, he visited the restaurant, where Ms Biju served him food, treating him just like any other patron. He sat there looking through his phone in an unsettling manner, she said.
Moments later, he approached her and repeated his offer to marry her or else he would kill her. When she refused, he took out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly.
He told the police that he snapped when he overheard her talking about wanting to celebrate the breakup.
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