4:20pm Tuesday 9th March 2010
By Paul Teed
The fiancee of a man who was poisoned by his jealous lover has spoken about the devastating impact his death has had on her life.
Gurjeet Choongh, 21, was due to marry Lakhvinder “Lucky” Cheema, 39, on Valentine's Day last year.
But the couple became violently ill after eating leftover curry which Lakhvir Singh, 45, laced with Indian aconite - known as the "Queen of poisons” - at Mr Cheema’s home in Princes Road, Feltham.
Miss Choongh survived but Mr Cheema died within hours.
Singh was last month convicted at the Old Bailey of murder and jailed for a minimum of 23 years.
Miss Choongh, of Southall, said: "I feel very tense and that my life has stopped.
"First you think you will get married and start a new life but this changed it all.
"I still have those memories of my future with him, but he has gone and it is finished.
"I constantly think about what my future is going to be and about what has happened and it makes me very upset."
Singh, a married mother-of-three, was said to have killed Mr Cheema because she could not bear the thought of his marriage to another woman.
Miss Choongh was left fighting for her life and Mr Cheema later died, despite his desperate 999 call and their friends and relatives’ last-ditch efforts to rush the couple to West Middlesex Hospital on January 27 last year.
Mr Cheema and Ms Singh had been lovers for about 15 years before he became engaged to Miss Choongh in November 2008.
Miss Choongh said: "Lucky had said to Lakhvir that he would not get married to anyone else apart from her.
"I had met Lakhvir in Lucky's house and I spoke to her. She told me that their relatives were aware that they were lovers.
"(After my engagement to Lucky) I explained to Lakhvir that she had three children and a husband who was ill in hospital but she said she could not control her feelings for Lakhvinder.
"Once, she came and I had a heart-to-heart with her and then I challenged Lucky on it. He just said she was bragging about it."
In the interview with the BBC Asian Network, Miss Choongh said she regreted deciding to marry Mr Cheema so quickly, and if she had the opportunity again she would have tried to find out more about his relationship with Singh.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/trade_directory/