An Indian man has been jailed for stabbing another international student to death in Melbourne after becoming enraged when his housemate left a party without saying goodbye.
Robin Robin, 30, appeared in the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday where Justice Andrew Tinney sentenced him to 27 years’ imprisonment with a 20-year non-parole period for the murder of Navjeet Singh Sandhu, 22, and attempted murder of Sharwan Singh, 30, in Ormond in May 2024.
Robin fought the charges by claiming self-defence, but was found guilty by a jury and Justice Tinney scolded him in sentencing for his “lack of regret and remorse”, the Australian Associated Press reported.
“Your violence was extreme and wanton, carried out on innocent victims in public and causing fear in the community,” Justice Tinney told Robin, and said the sentence needed to show the court’s “condemnation and abhorrence” of the violent attack.
The court heard Robin was drinking whiskey with friends to celebrate his brother Abhijeet Abhijeet buying a car, but became angry when Sharwan left the party without saying goodbye, and went to play cards at Navjeet’s house.
He called Sharwan, abused him, demanded he return, and then told him he was not allowed back inside and threatened to throw his belongings into the street if he did not come and get them.
But when Sharwan returned with Navjeet, who had offered his friend a room and a lift, to collect his things, Robin stabbed him in the chest in an attack Justice Tinney described as “unprovoked and uncalled for”.
Navjeet then tried to intervene, and Robin repeatedly stabbed him while holding his shirt collar to prevent him from escaping, leaving him with fatal injuries to his heart and lung.
Robin’s trial heard in February that someone screamed “you want more beating, you want more beating” as Navjeet tried to get away.
The murderer ran inside, collected his passport, and told his brother Abhijeet “I stabbed him” and “let’s go, run with me”.
The pair fled in a friend’s Toyota Camry sedan, and then took Ubers across the NSW border, hitchhiked, and got a taxi to a Sikh temple in Carrick, where they were arrested three days after the killing.
“I want to tell you that I am guilty,” Robin told police.
“I’m the guilty one, my brother is innocent, he did nothing wrong, I am guilty.”
Robin will be deported to India after serving his sentence.
Header image: Left, Robin Robin (Victoria Police). Right, Navjeet Singh Sandhu (GoFundMe).
