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Sarwan Singh Sanghera

Age: 57

Sex: male

Date: 5 Nov 1983

Place: Coventry Canal, New Inn Bridge, Foleshill

Sarwan Singh Sanghera was found dead in the Coventry Canal under New Inn Bridge in Coventry on 5 November 1983.

An open verdict was returned at his inquest. the Coroner said that his case was riddled with too many uncertainties to know how Sarwan Sanghera came to his death.

The police said they had ruled out foul play.

His family called on the DPP to review his case. They said that they felt that the police investigation had not been thorough enough. One of his sons said:

The facts about what happened are still so vague. So many pieces of the jigsaw are still missing.

His family added that they were happy with the open verdict, but added that they still felt there were suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and were also reported as having said that they beleived he had been murdered, and that the motive was robbery.

Sarwan Sanghera had nearby in Cubbington Road in Foleshill and had been an unemployed factory worker.

He was a married man with three sons and a daughter and had been celebrating Diwali at the Cinematograph club in Foleshill Road on the night of 4 November 1983. He had left after 11pm and was soon after seen on his own in Foleshill Road near Beresford Avenue.

A 23-year-old man that had been out with him said that he had been drunk that night and could remember nothing except picking Sarwan Sanghera up after eh had fallen and then helping him along the road.

Witnesses said they saw the two men on a path leading to the canal from the New Inn Bridge.

He was last seen with an unknown Asian man near the canal bridge at 11.50pm on the Friday night.

Sarwan Sanghera was found dead the following morning in the canal.

When the 23-year-old man was probed at the inquest, he said that he didn't get as far as the bridge, stating:

I just helped him up.

The Coroner said:

Several people saw you hold this man and saw you taking him to the bridge and the followingmorning this drunken ndian man was found floating in the canal and you have no explanation why you left him? What were you up to? It looks very suspicious doesn't it.

When he was asked why he told the police in a statment that he had walked to the top of the bridge when he was now saying that he couldn't remember getting that far, the 23-year-old man said that the police had read out statements to him by three witnesses that had seen him on the bring and added:

I couldn't argue with that.

When the Coroner asked him whether it was not a very reckless act to take a drunken man down to the canal, the man's representative told him that he should not answer that question as it might incriminate him. 

Sarwan Sanghera's cause of death was given as drowning. 

His family claimed that he had been robbed because when he was found he had had no money in his pockets and he always carried large amounts of cash with him. THey said that when he went out he had at least £25 on him but that when he was found he only had a few coins on him.

They also added that they could see no reason why Sarwan Sanghera would have gone down to the canal.

Sarwan Sanghera had come to the UK in 1950 and had been made redundant from Sterling Metals in Nuneaton in 1980.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Friday 25 May 1984

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Saturday 14 January 1984

see Birmingham Mail - Saturday 14 April 1984

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Saturday 14 January 1984

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Friday 13 April 1984

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Thursday 10 November 1983

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Friday 11 November 1983 (photo)