A Sikh man has been found guilty of murdering a university student with a ceremonial knife, before tricking police into arresting the dying man by accusing him of racism.

Finance student Henry Nowak, 18, was on his way home from a night out when he was attacked by stranger Vikrum Digwa, 23, with the eight inch ‘Shastar’ blade.

Digwa was caught on camera saying ‘I am a bad man’ before the fatal attack.

He was on trial accused of murder alongside his mother Kiran Kaur, 53, who was charged with assisting an offender by stashing the murder weapon. 

Today a jury at Southampton Crown Court found Digwa guilty of murder and his mother guilty of assisting an offender. 

The trial heard Mr Nowak was in his first term studying accountancy and finance at Southampton University when he went for a night out in the city on December 3 2023 with friends from his football team.

The teenager went home at around 11pm having ‘drunk less than the legal limit to drive’.

Jurors were told he was speaking to friends on Snapchat when he came across Digwa, who was ‘carrying an extremely large knife in a sheath openly displayed over his clothing’.

Prosecutors said Digwa was ‘skilled’ with blades – having trained with weapons since he was 12 – and allegedly stabbed Mr Nowak three times in the front and three times in the back during a street confrontation.

Nobody witnessed the attack, but Digwa ‘aggressively pursued’ and filmed his victim as he tried to escape by jumping over a fence, leaving behind a trail of blood.

In his closing speech to the jury this week, Nicholas Lobbenberg KC said Digwa then used racism as his ‘trump card’, by accusing Mr Nowak of racial abuse when police officers arrived so they would arrest the wrong man.

This was, he said, a ‘wicked lie about a dying man’.

Soon after he was handcuffed, the University of Southampton student collapsed in the street and died from his injuries.

‘Put simply, Henry drowned in his own blood with his lung having been cut by the knife going eight centimetres into him,’ Mr Lobbenberg told the jury at the start of the trial.

The prosecutor said a video of the incident was found on Mr Nowak’s phone which was discovered in Digwa’s pocket.

Henry Nowak, 18, a finance student who was described as ‘kind and talented’ by his family

Vickrum Digwa, 23, used racism as his ‘trump card’, accusing Mr Nowak (pictured( of racial abuse when police officers arrived so they would arrest the wrong man 

In the video, played to the jury, Mr Nowak can be heard saying ‘Hello car’ and singing to himself before yawning, with the footage then cutting to show Digwa walking away from him.

Mr Nowak is then heard saying: ‘Innit bad man, what bad man. You’re a bad man, say you’re a bad man, go on.’

Digwa replied, ‘I am a bad man’, to which Mr Nowak replied: ‘Are you a b…’, before the footage cuts off.

Mr Lobbenberg said the defendant’s father and brother went to the scene shortly afterwards along with his mother, who was captured on video footage taking the knife back to their family home.

Digwa was said to have a fixation on weapons, choosing ‘to sleep in his bedroom with an arsenal of weapons’ and spoke about the Kirpan – a type of ceremonial dagger carried by Sikhs with which he allegedly killed Mr Nowak – in ‘loving terms’.

In the UK Sikhs are legally permitted to carry a Kirpan knife in public as it is protected under religious exemption laws.

However Digwa was found to have a small Kirpan around his neck that fulfilled his religious obligation and the ‘Shastar’ blade he carried on him was much larger – around eight inches.

Mr Lobbenberg said of Digwa in his closing speech: ‘He wasn’t at a temple, he had been helping with his brother’s work for Deliveroo.

‘This is a man who chooses to sleep in his bedroom with an arsenal of weapons.

‘This is a man who likes weapons. You know he searches for them on his phone.

‘He describes the murder weapon in loving terms.

‘You might think that rather odd, given what he did with that knife on that night.

‘Most importantly, he knows how to use weapons. He told you he has been training with weapons since he was 12.’

Mr Lobbenberg said that Digwa had lied about Mr Nowak being drunk that night and he was actually under the legal limit of alcohol to drive.

He said: ‘The biggest lie, ladies and gentlemen, is why he drew his knife. He told you from that witness box, Henry Nowak said he was going to kill me. He was going to f*** me up.

‘We suggest that was never said. You can be sure it was never said because why, if it had been said, would you not tell the 999 operator the most important thing as to why you acted.

‘He didn’t tell the police at the scene who were asking. He didn’t tell his brother when he was saying what happened.

‘If this was in the forefront of his mind, seared into his memory, why wouldn’t you tell someone?

‘Instead, he didn’t even put the threat to kill in his defence case statement.

‘It came from him for the first time in the witness box.’

Mr Lobbenberg said that there was a stream of lies from Digwa starting from the minutes after the incident.

He said: ‘We say this, “drunk” is a lie, “going to kill me” is a lie and we say “P***” is a lie. The consequence and purpose of these lies is significant.

‘Why he tells them is he is seeking to hide what he has done.

‘And racism was his trump card to try to make sure what he had done was lawful.

‘We say that was a wicked lie about a dying man and it is a wicked lie about a dead man to you now.’

Mr Lobbenberg said that Mr Nowak was an ‘unarmed young man with a phone’.

The prosecutor said: ‘This is not a case about Sikhism. This is not a case about racism. This is a case about murder.’