Soma, of Stroud Road, North Evington, had denied trying to kill Darshana Narotam, 17, and Prashant Govinde, 22, on the afternoon of January 19. The 26-year-old was also found guilty of unlawfully wounding a 15-year-old boy during same incident, on January 19.
Darshana's father, Narotam Deugi (41), was found guilty of common assault on Darshana, by putting his hands around her throat, in separate incident, at the family home in Wembley, on December 20 last year. Her father and mother were acquitted of falsely imprisoning her in her bedroom at the family home.
Darshana's father was acquitted with other family members of kidnapping Prashant's father, in an attempt to find the whereabouts of the young couple after they eloped together.
Darshana and Prashant were walking home after visiting local shops on East Park Road, Spinney Hills, in Leicester, when Soma attacked them in the street with a knife.
Soma had also denied inflicting grievous bodily harm upon the 15-year-old boy, who suffered a cut hand with severed tendons whilst trying to help injured Darshana and Prashant, who survived life-threatening injuries.
Adrienne Lucking QC, prosecuting, told the jury Soma attacked the young couple “in revenge” for being jilted by Darshana. She had eloped with Prashant, to avoid an arranged marriage with Soma.
Detective Inspector John Farndon, of Leicestershire Police's serious crime team, said after the verdicts were announced: “These were dreadful crimes, and could easily have caused the deaths of two young people who had harmed no-one. Crimes like these are very rare, and are sometimes called honour based violence. However, this has nothing to do with culture or religion, this is simple criminality.
In June, the Government introduced a new law where forced marriages were made a criminal offence. Honour-based violence is defined as an incident or crime which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of the family or community.
Forced Marriage is defined where one or both spouses do not (or in the case of some vulnerable adults, cannot) consent to the marriage and duress is involved.
