A 25-year-old Indian man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in London, UK, for attempting to kill his ex-girlfriend. Sriram Ambarla, who is from Hyderabad, pleaded guilty to the charges and received another prison sentence of 12 months for possessing a knife unlawfully in a public place.
In March 2022, Mr Ambarla, then 23-years-old, brutally attacked his ex-girlfriend, a Malayali student, at a biryani restaurant in East Ham. He slashed her throat before stabbing her nine times, leaving her critically injured for almost a month, reported Daily Mail.
Court proceedings revealed that Mr Ambarla and the victim met while studying engineering in India in 2016.
Their relationship turned abusive, leading to their split around 2019, with Mr Ambarla resorting to physical violence and threats of self-harm to control the victim. He used to repeatedly show up at her house unexpectedly and would attempt to blackmail her into marriage.
He regularly tried to order items from the restaurant in which his ex-girlfriend worked to try to get her to his place.
Mr Ambarla, after many rejections, finally went to the East London restaurant where she worked. The victim revealed that he threatened to kill her if she did not agree to marry him and said she did not want to live by his rules. It was at this point that he took out a knife and launched a frenzied attack, stabbing her repeatedly, even as she fell to the ground. He told the police that he snapped when he overheard her talking about wanting to celebrate the breakup.
Court reports revealed that moments before his vicious attack on the woman, Mr Ambarla searched online about “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.”
He was described as “jealous, possessive, and determined” by the judge and was given a lifetime restraining order from ever contacting the woman again.