Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 22 - Unmathallegadoo - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: Confusion at a suburban house in East London. POLICEMAN: Stay there for now please until we
establish what's going on. We got intelligence that someone's been shot at this address.
Don't ask me why, but I just felt it in my guts this was going to be very, very nasty.
NARRATOR: A stalker. He was monitoring. He was tracking her, watching, filming. NARRATOR: A stockpile of lethal weapons.
NEIL LANCASTER: It was as early as 2015 when he bought his first ever crossbow. NARRATOR: And a jealous ex-husband
with a deadly obsession. For Sana to have tried to jump out of a window, of course,
the threat to her must have been really great. POLICEMAN: Hands behind your back now.
Hands behind your back now. POLICEMAN (ON RADIO): The suspect's outside. NARRATOR: Nearly 20 years after their arranged marriage, what
had Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo done to his pregnant former bride? POLICEMAN: Right.
You're under arrest, OK, for the offense of attempted murder. [theme music] NARRATOR: Mauritius, for tourists a luxury destination.
In 1999, for one teenage girl called Sana, it was about to become a prison. CLARE MACKINTOSH: When Sana met Ramanodge,
she was just 16 years old. The wedding was arranged by their families and took place on Sana's 16th birthday in 1999.
Ramanodge was 30, almost twice her age. NARRATOR: Nazir Afzal is a lawyer specializing
in violence against women. NAZIR AFZAL: It's not uncommon for the parties to meet for the very first time on their wedding day
as this individual and Sana did. NARRATOR: Her 16th birthday, an arranged marriage,
and her first ever meeting with her husband. There's nothing inherently wrong with arranged marriages.
It's what happens afterwards that's perhaps concerning. At 30, Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo was almost old enough
to be his new bride's father. There's no doubt that when there's a bigger age gap in a marriage or in a relationship this
certainly will play into power imbalance in that relationship. And so Sana being 16 and Unmathallegadoo being 30
would have been a power imbalance. Sana's mother, Ellemah, trusted that he would
keep her young daughter safe. That trust would be abused. POLICEMAN: You're under arrest, OK, for the offense
of attempted murder. What could they possibly have in common? They could have nothing in common.
So the whole relationship has to be based on something else. That's a red flag for a start, because she's just a child.
In many countries across the world, there are still very stereotypical expectations
of women in a marriage, so whether that's to be the homemaker, to have certain roles as a wife,
and to behave in certain ways. And unfortunately, in this case, it seems that Sana was also expected
to behave in a particular way. NARRATOR: From the outset, Ramanodge laid down the law for his new wife, known at the time
by her birth name of Devi. I believe that Sana lived in fear, almost from the moment
that they were married initially. He controlled her. He abused her. He beat her.
He was violent towards her. She had nothing like the life that she thought she would have with him.
NARRATOR: Despite the beatings, custom meant that she felt she could not leave Ramanodge,
and just a year later, Sana gave birth to the couple's first child. She's pregnant by the time she's 17.
Her life now is mapped out for her. It's clear that in the relationship between Sana
and Unmathallegadoo that what we can see is a really difficult, abusive relationship.
He was a controlling bully, who sought to control every single aspect of her life.
And he viewed her as his property. One of Sana's friends reported how Sana had broken down to her
and said that she'd married too young. She'd been so desperately unhappy with Ramanodge.
NARRATOR: Over the next two years, the couple had two more children. After the youngest was born in 2006,
there was another life-changing decision. NEIL LANCASTER: Around this time, they decided to move to the United Kingdom
in search of a better life. EMMA KENNY: There's been some huge transitions for Sana.
You know, she's got married as a very young girl, you know, school-aged girl. And now, she's transitioning to a whole new country, which
means that she's moving away from everything that she knew at a time, with respect, that she might
have needed some extra support. They then moved to North East London, where he gets a job at Newham General
Hospital as a site manager. NARRATOR: In a foreign country with three young children
to look after, Sana's relationship was worsening. The marriage that Sana was in was probably hellish.
I don't think she probably saw a day of love or care across the entirety of that marriage.
The person she was married to was cruel and controlling and entitled, and he frightened her.
He's brought her to a new country, where she's isolated. He's consistently using violence on her.
He's threatened her consistently that if she leaves him there will be repercussions.
And now, he's at the point where he's going to carry on through with those potential repercussions.
JANE MONCKTON SMITH: Sana was in a marriage where she had literally no one to go to, nowhere to go to.
She was completely trapped. She was a prisoner inside the marriage. NARRATOR: As well as physical attacks,
Ramanodge subjected Sana to psychological intimidation. It reached a peak in one incident in 2012.
She actually felt that she was under threat in that moment, and she actually put herself at risk physically to escape him.
NARRATOR: Angry with her, not for the first time, Ramanodge was sharpening knives, staring intimidatingly at Sana.
Sana broke her ankle jumping from an upstairs window, having felt in fear for her life after seeing
the look in her husband's eyes as he looked at her sharpening knives. NARRATOR: Sana had thrown herself out of a window,
causing serious injury to avoid her threatening husband. After 13 years of marital abuse, it was the final straw.
She decides to take the massive step of actually going to the police and reporting this man.
Salvation women or women from minority communities generally have low confidence and low trust with authority.
It takes an enormous amount of courage often for them to tell the police, for example,
what's happened to them. The fact that she had to jump out of a window and hurt herself in order to flee an attack from him
tells you everything you need to know about the relationship. Ramanodge was arrested out of this incident,
and he was prosecuted. However, on judge's directions, he was acquitted. Ramanodge's acquittal at the 2013 trial
on a legal technicality left Sana without the protection of a conviction against him.
She felt she had only one option, to leave her husband. Faeeza Vaid is an expert in law and religious studies
and has a recognized and extensive understanding of the lived experiences of Muslim and Hindu women.
For victims of abuse, it is so difficult for them to finally take the courageous step to leave
their abusive situations. In Sana's case, she had experienced multiple forms of abuse a number of times.
JANE MONCKTON SMITH: Sana was clearly absolutely terrified of him. FAEEZA VAID: For her to actually take the courage
to leave that relationship must have been so difficult for her. The concept of honor and shame and the community pressures,
particularly around an arranged marriage, where it's a marriage of families, would have meant that she
would have seen it as-- it would take an enormous step for her to be able to step out of the door
and say I've had enough of this. NARRATOR: Sana won an emergency non-molestation order
from the courts to keep Ramanodge away. In 2014, their divorce was finalized. The fact that Sana chose to leave her abusive relationship
tells us not only how bad the situation must have been but the incredible courage that she would have needed to do so,
and that she was determined to give not only herself but also her children a safer environment to live in.
NARRATOR: Sana may have escaped her abusive marriage, but she was far from safe.
FAEEZA VAID: It is not uncommon for ex-partners to continue to harass their former victims.
And in Sana's case, we can see that this really happened. Disturbingly, Ramanodge made it clear,
pretty much from the get-go, that even though she left him he had absolutely no intention of letting her go.
NARRATOR: Ramanodge had lost control, and not just over Sana. Soon after this, Ramanodge loses his job
at Newham General Hospital. He clearly had lost total face. He had lost his place within the community.
And now, he'd lost this ridiculous concept of masculinity, that he wasn't a man anymore, you know?
And therefore, he felt the only way he could do something about it is to restore his manliness by showing
Sana who was in control. NARRATOR: Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo's life in London had fallen apart--
out of the family home, without work, without a wife. What would a man who had married a teenage girl on the same day
that he had met her do to take revenge on her decision to leave him? It seems that Ramanodge began putting
his wife under surveillance. NARRATOR: Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo's life was falling apart.
His wife had left him, taking their three children. He'd lost his job at the hospital.
And to cap it all, Sana now found love with someone else. CLARE MACKINTOSH: Sana began to move on with her life.
She found a new relationship. She's in a foreign country. She's got no support around her, so meeting somebody who
could meet those needs and make her feel safe, they would have been a very attractive proposition.
I don't think that anybody could blame her for wanting that. In stark contrast, Ramanodge's life was spiraling downhill.
He's now homeless, so he has gone from a man with an honorable job, living with his wife, his children--
he's now living on the streets. NARRATOR: Ramanodge launched a new strategy to exert control,
watching his wife's every move. Ramanodge began putting his wife under surveillance.
He was monitoring her. He was tracking her, watching, filming. Wanted to know absolutely everything that she was doing
all the time to the point that it was the only thing that mattered in his life. NARRATOR: Much of Ramanodge's secret footage
was shot from an unexpected location. Numerous tapes were recovered from the couple's property.
NARRATOR: He filmed Sana and her new family from their own unlocked garden shed.
JANE MONCKTON SMITH: He was paranoid, and he was revenge-fueled. All of these are signs of stalking and harassment, which
is against the law in the UK. NARRATOR: He also appeared to be driven by a twisted interpretation of something
that he'd grown up with in Mauritius, a code of honor. He's ruminating. He's angry.
How dare she leave him? And he doesn't feel that anybody has a right to what he owns.
Honor-based violence is a crime committed often to protect the perceived honor of a family,
and this happens when it is mistakenly believed that someone has brought dishonor to a family
or to a relationship. And in Sana's case, Unmathallegadoo seems to believe that his former wife has brought shame
onto his relationship and potentially his family, not only for leaving him but also
for re-establishing her relationship with somebody else. NARRATOR: Now, as he stalked the ex-wife who dared to leave him,
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo began plotting something altogether darker. He is now destitute, and it's clear to me,
he blames his ex-wife for this. He's gone from this decent position to being homeless.
He wants revenge. NARRATOR: In 2014, 15 years after marrying Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, Sana's life was altogether
different and much happier than her first husband's. She was starting her life again with a new man.
Finally, she was with a man that she loved and living the life that she wanted to live.
She took her children. She got a protective order from the courts. She moved on with a new and happy relationship.
And everything seemed to be OK. NARRATOR: With her three children she settled down with builder Imtiaz Muhammad
in a 500,000 pounds house in Ilford, East London. Imtiaz is one of those special men, who
doesn't see a woman with lots of children as baggage but actually sees her as an instant family, an opportunity
to grow his own family. NARRATOR: The transformation from Mauritian teenage bride
to happy London wife and mother was complete. She was now Mrs. Sana Muhammad. FAEEZA VAID: Sana was certainly trying to rebuild her life
and seemed to be doing so really well. The newfound happiness with another man would have
a devastating impact on her now ex-husband, Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo. The marriage with her new partner is a trigger.
Given his level of obsession and how he feels that he's completely lost face, he then spends
the best part of three years absolutely fixated on her. He does not want her to be happy with anybody else.
He'd rather her be unhappy with him than happy with somebody else. Sana and Imtiaz soon started a family of their own,
adding two children to the three that she'd had with Ramanodge. By 2018, Sana was pregnant with her sixth child.
The very fact that he now looks at his ex-wife as not only being in the possession of another man,
she's now pregnant, therefore, exacerbating that sexual jealousy. That puts her in a really dangerous situation.
NARRATOR: Since 2015, Ramanodge had continuously been stalking his ex-wife. Ramanodge had become increasingly obsessed
with Sana and her new family. He continued to follow her. He wouldn't let things lie.
This was a man who felt that he completely owned her, and he was having his rights taken away.
NARRATOR: Jobless and sleeping rough, Ramanodge was banned by the courts from contacting Sana or coming within 100 meters
of her new home in Ilford, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He won't let go.
He's not going to let go. He is obsessing about her. He clearly blames her for all his misfortune.
NARRATOR: Criminologist Jane Monckton Smith believes Ramanodge's obsession was rooted in his personality and the view he had of marriage.
From the day they got married, he would have believed fiercely that he owned Sana.
He was an incredibly intense person. He wasn't a very nice person. So at the point that she left him, separated from him,
and the courts helped her to leave him, he became absolutely obsessed-- obsessed with getting his revenge.
And it would have started immediately. NARRATOR: The court order meant nothing to Ramanodge.
Restraining orders are quite complicated when you're in a very high risk situation.
Sometimes, a restraining order will work. Sometimes, it makes things worse. And sometimes, they are completely irrelevant.
The person doesn't even acknowledge or care that there is a restraining order in place.
He still will not let this go. He will not ever let this go until he has his revenge.
His desire for revenge has never gone away. It's just built-- it's become his life now.
He's homeless. He has nothing, but whatever it is he's got, he has spent on buying the equipment with which to exact
his revenge on his ex-wife. He was really ruminating on the potential of harm that
he could do to his ex-partner. She was in grave danger. NARRATOR: At the same time as he was stalking Sana Muhammad,
Ramanodge was assembling an arsenal of weapons. He meticulously planned it, and there
is one thing he wanted to do. It was as early as 2015 when Ramanodge bought his first crossbow.
NARRATOR: And that's not all. Duct tape, cable ties, a knife, and a hammer-- this was the weaponry that he'd amassed,
and he used telescopic ladders to vault over garden fences so that he could go in the dead of night
and plot up in that garden shed, where he could see the comings and goings of that home.
He's got weapons. He's got restraints. You know, got everything that he needs. NARRATOR: Ramanodge stored his terrifying hoard right
under the noses of his quarry in hiding places near to their home, but the cache of weapons
almost proved his downfall when a passerby came across them by chance. These were discovered stashed near to his
ex-wife's home in March 2018. GARY HOLMES: It was discovered by a local resident that
was concerned of what they had found, and what they'd actually found, amongst many things,
was harpoons normally used for killing sharks in the sea. Not a lot of call for harpoons and shark-hunting in Ilford.
NARRATOR: With his arsenal reported to the police, Ramanodge began stockpiling all over again.
The determination Unmathallegadoo had, that once that cache of weaponry had been discovered and effectively been deprived,
he couldn't get his hands on it any longer. He had to go back to the drawing board, so he did it again.
NEIL LANCASTER: He buys two further crossbows. And all of this is despite the fact
that he is homeless with no money. And yet he's buying expensive, dangerous weapons.
Following these purchases, Ramanodge continued to surveil the house where Sana lived with her new husband and their two children.
NARRATOR: After years of plotting revenge on the wife who had left him, Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo
was ready to execute his plan. CLARE MACKINTOSH: On the morning of November 12, 2018,
Ramanodge took up position in the garden shed outside the house belonging to Sana and Imtiaz Muhammad.
He was armed with the crossbows, duct tape, cable ties, a hammer, and a knife. NARRATOR: With his weapons to hand, the moment for action
had arrived. So here we are. Picture the scene. Four years after their divorce, here
is this man, this dangerous, obsessed man in the shed in their garden. He has two crossbows.
He has a knife. He has a hammer. He has spare bolts. He has cable ties. He has duct tape.
He's got murder on his mind. He's essentially armed and ready to torture and kill.
From the moment that he hatched his plot to murder Sana, he was driven by one thing,
and that was pure hatred. And he would not rest until he achieved that. NARRATOR: Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo
had married his bride on the day of her 16th birthday. He saw it as a lifetime commitment.
Sana saw it as a life sentence, a life now very much under threat. [ominous music]
Happily married to her second husband and heavily pregnant with her sixth baby, there was a dark shadow over the life of Sana Muhammad.
Even when a victim of domestic abuse leaves her relationship, she is still in danger.
Sana is still very, very worried about her ex-husband. She fears something might happen.
CLARE MACKINTOSH: Imtiaz knew that his wife Sana was still terrified of her ex-husband despite the fact
that the non-molestation order forbade him from coming within 100 meters of her or their home.
NARRATOR: November 12, 2018, Sana and Imtiaz get up. It's early. Sana and Imtiaz were preparing for a dinner
party with friends. Sana was up early, starting to make the food that they would eat.
NARRATOR: The older children are getting ready for school. Imtiaz is cleaning things away.
NEIL LANCASTER: Imtiaz takes an empty TV box out to the shed to store it, tidying the house up in preparation
for the arrival of her friends. NARRATOR: When he reaches the shed, he is in for a terrifying surprise.
He opened the garden shed and froze, because there was Ramanodge standing with two crossbows
raised to his shoulders. He's horrified because he sees his wife's ex-husband, this dangerous man they've been living
in fear of for all these years. He thought he was dreaming when he suddenly saw Ramanodge
appear with the crossbows. And in that moment, Imtiaz actually really freezes for a few seconds because he's in complete shock.
But then he runs, sprinting back to the house, screaming to his wife to get out.
NARRATOR: With a crossbow slung over each shoulder, Ramanodge's long wait for revenge
had finally come to an end. Obviously, in this moment, Ramanodge knows that he's got to act now.
He's got armed weapons. He's got lowered crossbows. He's got cable ties. This is all going to happen.
It's going to happen now. He's prepared, and now he's going to do it. NARRATOR: There were five children in the house,
three of them his own. His ex-wife, Sana, was eight months pregnant with another man's child.
What exactly was Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo intending to do? Ramanodge burst into the house.
He's quite in control of himself. This is the culmination of everything that he's been planning.
He knows what's going to happen. He wants her to know what's going to happen, and he doesn't care really who witnesses it.
This is a job to be done, and he's going to do it. Throughout the whole thing, one of the things
that struck me was that he was very calm. NARRATOR: As her ex-husband calmly walked into her house armed with two lethal crossbows.
Sana turned to flee upstairs. She screams. She runs upstairs to get away from him.
NARRATOR: Ramanodge gave his former wife a chilling look. Seeing his ex-wife, he smiles at her coldly,
gives her a thumbs up. Sana panicked, screaming, heavily pregnant. This is a horrific scene.
She tried to escape, her and her unborn child, up those stairs. Sana was running up the stairs, petrified for her life.
Ramanodge fired an 18-inch arrow up through her thigh and into her abdomen. With absolute cold blood he executed her as he stood
at the foot of those stairs. He used that crossbow, and he pointed upwards. And he took her life in a most brutal and horrendous way.
NARRATOR: Screaming and terrified, Imtiaz feared the second crossbow might be intended for him.
Ramanodge had two crossbows. One of which had been discharged, but the other was still loaded.
When he entered the house, it was clearly his intention that he was going to kill Sana for sure.
But the fact that he had a second weapon, I think we can speculate that it was his intention
to kill her husband also. In the hands of someone as unbalanced as Ramanodge, it is frightening to consider how dangerous weapons
such as this could be. NARRATOR: In fact, help was at hand from a different quarter,
Ramanodge's eldest child. In spite of the danger and the horror of seeing his mother
shot by his father, the 18-year-old boy stepped in to end the violence. His own son disarms him and takes the crossbow from him.
To which his father says, it would have been easier if you hadn't have been here.
Can you imagine the trauma that this young person is going to have in their lives?
It's-- it's sad, unbelievably sad. NARRATOR: Having shot his ex-wife with a powerful crossbow in front of his children,
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo simply walked away. Once he is satisfied that Sana will actually die from her
injuries, he becomes incredibly matter-of-fact about everything, sits down, and waits for the police to arrive.
He calmly goes downstairs and pours himself a glass of water, and he sits in the garden to wait for the police to arrive.
NARRATOR: DCI Gary Holmes was leading the homicide investigation team when the emergency call came in.
Being on call, I received a phone call to tell me that there had been a young lady who'd been
shot at an address in Ilford. POLICEMAN: Hands behind your back now. Hands behind your back now.
POLICEMAN (ON RADIO): The suspect's outside. Don't ask me why, but I just felt in my guts
this was going to be very, very nasty. NARRATOR: At first, police struggled to piece things together.
GARY HOLMES: When the first officers arrived at the scene, what they found was clearly, initially
an element of confusion. POLICEMAN: Stay there. [police radio chatter] Stay there for now, please, until we
establish what's going on. We've got intelligence that someone's been shot at this address.
Body worn cameras are almost universally worn now by uniformed police officers patrolling the streets.
And in this particular case, you can see the horror of the scene. But more than that, you can see the horror
that the officer witnesses and almost what he feels. NARRATOR: When the police arrived,
an ambulance crew was already on the scene. GARY HOLMES: She was being treated by the London
ambulance service at that time. And also, at the scene was some of the sons of Unmathallegadoo.
So obviously, to begin with you have people that are upset. There is initially confusion, and you
need to put the facts together. When you look at the body cam footage from the police,
one of the things you'll notice is he's calm, cool, and collected. He's ready for what's happening next.
When they're talking to him, he doesn't seem to be that concerned. And again, what's going on in the mind,
in the brain, in fact, of a human being who has just executed somebody, a completely innocent party.
You would imagine some kind of emotional disturbance. GARY HOLMES: When you study the body worn video,
when one considers the terrible, terrible crime that he has just committed, to have demonstrated
no outward emotion, no-- no upset, not even panic, not even distress that he himself is being arrested, to me
was most unusual. POLICEMAN: Right. You're under arrest, OK, for the offense of attempted murder.
NARRATOR: As Ramanodge was being arrested, ambulance staff were treating the horrific crossbow
injury to Sonia's abdomen. I rather naively at the time thought it was going to be some kind of smaller weapon,
having never been exposed to crossbows before. But when I saw it, it was truly an horrendous weapon.
She suffered catastrophic injuries from the man that started his period of abuse
almost 20 years ago. The trajectory of the puncture wound of that crossbow bolt had ruptured so many major internal organs.
NARRATOR: Sana Muhammad died in hospital three hours later from a heart attack brought on by her injuries.
And Unmathallegadoo, I think, was resigned to the fact that he had carried out ultimately
what he set out to do, and that was the murder of his former wife. Particularly tragic that we have a victim of abuse who
endured so much, has found the courage to leave her abusive situation, and rebuild
her life in a safe space for her family and particularly her children. And for her life to have been cut short.
NARRATOR: Sana Muhammad had been murdered by the man she had married nearly 20 years earlier.
Would her unborn baby survive? [suspenseful music] The life of Sana's unborn child hung in the balance
as her body was rushed to hospital. The trajectory of the wound was such that it narrowly missed the unborn child
that she was carrying by literally a miracle. Miraculously, her unborn son is later
delivered by emergency cesarean section and survives these terrible injuries. NARRATOR: Within moments of depriving six children
of their mother, Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo began to spin a web of deceit. What you could pick up on that body
worn video was the fact that Unmathallegadoo was saying that he had attempted to shoot Imtiaz, who had
been the partner, the husband, the new husband of Sana, the victim. POLICEMAN: You've told myself that you've come round here
for your wife's current partner, and there's an affair involved. She's got in the way, where you've
admitted on my body worn video that you fired and shot her. OK? NARRATOR: If he wasn't going to deny firing the crossbow bolt
that killed his ex-wife, what would his defense be? That what had happened was all an accident.
When Unmathallegadoo was detained at the police station, very soon after the attack, his whole entire response
to the news that indeed his former wife was dead was quite chilling, and he used those words,
it was unfortunate. And to me, when you say "unfortunate," "unfortunate" is like, I've had a slight accident.
It's unfortunate knocked over a cup of coffee. He was talking about the murder of his ex-wife,
the mother of his children, and yet he absolutely bore no-- no kind of emotion to that.
Again, absolutely chilling. He's so delusional, regarding his arrogance, that he somehow believes by weaving these absolutely
transparent stories together that somehow people will believe him, and it shows that whilst he had thought very
much about executing the plan he had never actually thought about defending it. NARRATOR: The police needed to make
sure their case was watertight, that it would convince a jury. We had witness evidence that he had committed the crime,
that he had pursued his ex-wife, and that the crossbow had been discharged, and she died.
NARRATOR: Gary Holmes leading the homicide investigation was worried that the evidence
was not going to be enough. Another aspect of the case that concerned me was that because it was so terrible
and it was so blatant that I was concerned that he could try and say, well, I was suffering
from a temporary insanity. So what I needed to prove was every element leading up to that day was present in his mind.
So what does that mean? That means he planned it. He meticulously planned it, and there
is one thing he wanted to do and that was to murder his former wife. That was what he set out to do.
The mere fact that he went there armed with two crossbows to me is indicative of that fact.
NARRATOR: When the case came to trial at the Old Bailey in April 2019, Ramanodge
pleaded not guilty to murder. There was a twist to come as the story played out in court.
In this particular trial, the judge had said that mental health is not an issue.
Unmathallegadoo had been assessed. It wasn't an issue, and if it had have been, that would have been a defense.
So it was not an issue, and the judge was quite clear about that. NARRATOR: One of the jurors with some medical training
thought they knew better. A member of the jury, unbeknowing to us, was an ambulance person, worked for an ambulance service
and had said that in their opinion, when they looked at his-- Unmathallegadoo's demeanor post-arrest
on the body worn video, I refer to it as chilling-- they said he's exhibiting the signs of PSTD.
NARRATOR: The trial was halted, and a retrial scheduled for November 2019. The prosecution still had to make their case.
I then needed to prove that actually he wasn't just there to scare them. NARRATOR: At his second Old Bailey trial in November 2019,
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo indeed claimed that he had never meant to kill his ex-wife Sana.
During his trial, he gave evidence that this was an accident. He claimed the crossbow had gone off by mistake.
NARRATOR: If that was the case, why did he have the crossbow in the first place?
He claimed that he'd purchased the crossbows in order to go hunting in Mauritius, that he simply happened to have them
with him when he came to the house in order to talk to Imtiaz about his concerns
that his daughter was being brought up following the Muslim faith. Ramanodge's defense in court is ludicrous.
It's like a pantomime. NARRATOR: Changing his story again, he said he wanted to challenge Imtiaz
about bringing his daughter up as a Muslim when Ramanodge was a Hindu. He claimed in the trial that one of his motives,
or his overriding motive, was to scare Sana in order for her to ensure that his daughter
was not brought up as a Muslim. Unmathallegadoo claimed that Sana was forcing their children
to live their lives as Muslims. The fact that his daughter-- his daughter was now a Muslim
would be shameful for him within his community, within the people that he speaks to.
And that would have perhaps driven him to the scare her. Of course, it's a nonsense.
NARRATOR: Nonsense maybe, but it was another thing the prosecution had to show was a lie.
This wasn't spontaneous. This was not a man who suddenly lost his mind. You know, he wasn't provoked.
This was something that had-- it was a meticulously planned murder. In fact, it was years in the planning.
NARRATOR: To prove a history of violence and abuse DCI Gary Holmes dug out the police report from the time
a terrified Sana had jumped out of the window to escape her bullying husband and had broken her ankle.
Almost speaking from the grave, Sana's statement was in that bundle of case papers,
and that ent-- that enabled me to really get to know from her perspective, even though she was dead,
all those years previously, the very manipulative and coercive nature of Unmathallegadoo.
And again, that was quite chilling. NARRATOR: It was powerful evidence that revealed Ramanodge's defense for what
it was, a pack of lies. The CPS were able to present clear evidence that Ramanodge
had been watching the house and the family for well over a year and had purchased the crossbows for the first time in 2015.
Here we have a truly systematic, premeditated murder. NARRATOR: The jury accepted that Ramanodge
intended to kill Sana, and Imtiaz, and their unborn child. He was found guilty of murder.
In that second trial he was convicted, sentenced to life in prison with a minimum recommendation
that he must serve 33 years in prison before he could even apply for parole. Ramanodge comes to execute his ex-wife.
It's as simple as that, but what is extra chilling about his action is, firstly, the cool, calm, collected
manner that he carried it out. But secondly, before he actually shoots her, he gives a thumbs up.
So Imtiaz is actually watching this happen, and he's basically celebrating the fact
that he's going to do it. It's almost a joke to him. If you're really trying to scare somebody,
you wouldn't have armed it. You know? You point it knowing that you couldn't hurt anybody,
but he didn't do that. He'd armed it. A crossbow is a difficult and slow thing to reload.
He went with two because he wanted to kill at least two people. It's very, very large, very heavy.
And the ferocity at which they discharge a bolt is as lethal as any bullet, any knife.
That's what was going to happen. He was going to execute them all. NARRATOR: What had prompted Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo
to murder the woman that he had married nearly 20 years earlier? It was an honor killing.
He was-- he'd lost face. He was now ashamed. Felt that he was shamed within the community.
He was determined to restore, quote, unquote, the honor-- his honor, his honor within the community,
and he felt that the only way he could do that was by killing her. It is bizarre.
It's ridiculous. But undoubtedly, it was something that was clearly playing on his mind.
In the UK, on average, two women are murdered each week by their former partners.
In this particular case, I think what is highlighted is that even when a victim of domestic abuse
leaves her relationship that she is still in danger. He's probably the kind of danger
that we all have nightmares about. He's the individual who can murder the woman that he once loved and try to murder her partner.
NARRATOR: The murder of Sana Muhammad left a family without a mother, a wife, a daughter.
Sana Muhammad was a lovely person, completely inoffensive I would say, gentle, loving, caring.
And I can honestly say that all the people we interviewed were devastated. And you could see the hole it had left in their lives.
The fact that so many people would now be without this wonderful person. Imtiaz was devastated by the loss of his soul mate, Sana.
He was emotional in court. He referred to her as his life partner, his best friend, his everything.
You feel for them because they have lost the most important person in their life.
Sana's life is now over. That was his wife, the mother of his unborn child, the mother of his two young children, his wife, his--
the love of his life. You know, you add the young children of Sana that she had with Unmathallegadoo.
They are now without a mother. Sana's mother, Ellemah, will never forgive Ramanodge.
There are days, she says, where I don't want to live. Sana was an only child. She was the whole world to Ellemah.
Sana's mother also feels a level of complete betrayal on his part, the fact that Ramanodge
came into their lives. She accepted him as a son. Unmathallegadoo, to my knowledge,
has never shown one shred of remorse to this day. NARRATOR: What started with an arranged marriage
had ended with murder. JANE MONCKTON SMITH: When these two got together, a 16-year-old
and a 30-year-old, in those circumstances with his personality and his violence,
if she ever decided to leave him, this was inevitable. Sana was certainly trying to rebuild her life
and seemed to be doing so really well. And it is a tragedy that her life was taken in this way
by somebody who believed that he still had the right over her. I do believe that he would have planned to kill Imtiaz,
the new husband, the unborn baby clearly that Sana was carrying that's miraculously survived.
But I also think he would have killed the children of Imtiaz and Sana. I have no doubt in my mind.
But what, for me, stood out about this particular case was the hatred that he was driven by.
He hated her because she had taken the decision she was not going to be bullied.
She was not going to be intimidated or coerced by this horrible individual. [ominous music]

Sana Muhammad escaped an arranged marriage and found true happiness with a new man…until her ex-husband began hunting her down.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Sana Muhammad was murdered by her ex-husband after years of abuse and stalking, highlighting the dangers of domestic violence.

Key points

The Final Straw. After years of abuse, Sana jumps from a window to escape her husband, leading to police involvement.
A Dangerous Obsession. Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo's life spirals out of control after his ex-wife leaves him, leading to a dark obsession.
A Shocking Discovery. Imtiaz Muhammad finds Ramanodge armed with crossbows in the garden shed, leading to a terrifying confrontation.
Ramanodge's Revenge. Ramanodge's long wait for revenge culminates in a shocking act of violence.
A Chilling Look. Ramanodge gives his ex-wife a chilling look before the attack.
The Aftermath. Sana Muhammad dies from her injuries, leaving a family shattered.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was a prisoner inside the marriage.

Narrator describing Sana's situation.

5:58WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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