Knife laws 'deflection tactic' in Nowak case failings

The Home Office is using knife laws as a "deflection tactic" to distract from police "failings" after the murder of Henry Nowak, a Sikh group has said.

Vickrum Digwa was jailed for life for stabbing 18-year-old student Nowak with a large dagger in Belmont Road, Southampton, on 3 December 2025.

The Sikh Federation accused ministers of "inappropriately targeting" the kirpan, a sacred religious blade.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signalled she is considering a change to knife laws after Nowak's father Mark called for a clearer definition in law of what a Sikh kirpan looks like.

But the Sikh Federation said the Home Office was "attempting to deflect attention away from the real failings by the police and other government agencies" in the case "despite the clear fact that the murder weapon was not a kirpan".

The group's chief executive for political engagement, Dabinderjit Singh, said: "Instead of addressing the failures that allowed this tragedy to happen, the government is now allowing inaccurate and harmful narratives about the Sikh faith to take hold.

"That is unacceptable."

The Sikh Federation is encouraging more than 250 Gurdwaras – places of worship – to write to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and thousands of Sikhs are expected to contact MPs demanding the Home Office stops its "discriminatory approach".

Singh added: "Sikhs support public safety and the fight against knife crime.

"But we will not accept the sacred kirpan being falsely associated with a murder weapon that was not a kirpan.

"The Home Office must stop this divisive and irresponsible agenda and meet Sikh institutions immediately."

Digwa was originally jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years, but this was increased to 25 years on Thursday after the Court of Appeal found it was "unduly lenient".

Judge William Mousley KC told Digwa's sentencing hearing in June that on the night of the murder, the killer had a kirpan hidden from view.

A kirpan is a religious knife which baptised Sikhs are expected to carry at all times, and the law allows it to be carried in public for religious reasons.

Digwa wore a small kirpan around his neck, but was also carrying a larger knife on a belt, in keeping with an order of Sikhs known as the Nihang.

Nowak's father told ITV News the law should define the kirpan's size, type and whether it must be visible.

He added: "And therefore, anything else should be made illegal."

Mahmood told the same broadcaster: "I haven't taken any options off the table.

"I'm also not going in with a fixed mind about what the right clarifications of the law might be.

"It's important to get the right balance between religious expression in this country, which is something that many of us of a faith, including myself, hold very dearly, but do so in a way that is within what we expect of our citizens for the purposes of the criminal law."

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said: "There is no freedom to murder in any religion and I think that we need to bring some common sense into this."

The Independent Office for Police Conduct's investigation into potential failures in the police response to Nowak's stabbing is expected to wrap up early next year.

It announced in July that two officers were under investigation for potential gross misconduct.

Nowak was handcuffed by police as he lay dying after his attacker falsely accused him of racial abuse.

Digwa's mother, Kiran Kaur, was jailed for three years in July for assisting an offender by removing the knife from the scene.