In a horrifying turn of events, Shazeb Khalid, a 25-year-old Pakistani man, was found guilty of the heinous murder of Vignesh Pattabiraman, a 36-year-old Indian Tamil restaurant manager from Reading, UK. The crime occurred on Valentine’s Day this year.
On Wednesday, the jury at Reading Crown Court found Khalid guilty of intentionally running down Pattabiraman while driving a stolen red Range Rover, motivated by a £2,000 ‘contract fee’. The man died from his injuries at Royal Berkshire Hospital in the early hours of 15th February. The deceased victim’s post-mortem report confirmed head injuries as the cause of death.
According to the prosecution, a sinister conspiracy involving Vel’s operation manager, Mohammed Sadiq Ishmail, who reportedly recruited his accomplice, Soiheem Hussain, to intimidate Pattabiraman. Ishmail suspected Pattabiraman was informing authorities about illegal staff employment at the restaurant. Witnesses reported seeing Khalid emerge from the wrecked car and attack Pattabiraman with a series of attacks.
Moreover, Khalid stole money from Pattabiraman’s bag after the murder. Vel Restaurant in Brighton was fined £20,000 in December 2022 for employing two illegal workers, while a following raid on Vel Reading in August 2023 resulted in no further action. Defending his actions, Khalid, who came to the UK from Pakistan in 2007, claimed his actions were inadvertent, claiming he just intended to “scare him” and “maybe grab him and tell him to stop snitching.” He denied violence and stealing. Meanwhile, Hussain rejected charges that he hired Khalid to cause serious injury, resulting in his acquittal on the murder charge but punishment for helping an offender. Khalid and Hussain are expected to be sentenced on the 10th of October.
