Widow of man falsely accused in 1997 Glasgow murder seeks Indian PM's support to sue Scottish authorities

The widow of a businessman wrongly suspected in a 1997 murder has asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to support her family's plan to sue Scottish authorities.

Sougat Mukherjee was 44 when he died in Mumbai in 2023, almost four years after Tracey Wilde's actual killer was convicted in Glasgow. His wife, Sapna, 45, said her husband's life was irreversibly destroyed after police labeled him a suspect. She wants compensation and an Indian government inquiry into the matter.

Police Scotland said it does not comment on legal proceedings. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said it gives careful consideration to police reports of alleged crimes and takes action if there is sufficient evidence. Cases remain under review.

Sapna said Sougat had a successful career in sales and business development until October 2014, when Indian police told him he was wanted for an unsolved murder in Glasgow. He had traveled widely for work, including to the United States, United Arab Emirates and Greece.

In the weeks after, the father of three faced a long extradition fight. He was arrested in January 2015 and held for three weeks in Mumbai Prison. The next month, a Sunday Mail report named him as a suspect and published his picture alongside CCTV stills of a man with his arm around Tracey.

A DNA breakthrough later cleared Sougat's name. But his family said he never recovered from the stigma. Sapna told BBC Scotland News he suffered severe clinical depression after being called a murder suspect. He died on January 17, 2023, from acute liver cirrhosis.

"The world needs to know that an innocent man's life was completely and irreversibly destroyed, and that his family is still suffering the consequences today," she said.

Tracey Wilde, 21, was choked to death in her Barmulloch, Glasgow, flat on November 24, 1997. Her body, that of a mother of one who worked as a prostitute, was found the next day.

Sougat was then a 19-year-old student at Glasgow Nautical College, now City of Glasgow College. He arrived in Scotland in autumn 1996, left college three months after Tracey's death and returned to India.

He married Sapna and studied at a university in Chennai. Sapna said the accusation broke him completely. She watched as he slipped away, feeling like a burden while she supported their three children and his medical costs as the sole earner.

"His parents exhausted every penny they had trying to save him physically and mentally from the tsunami of emotional trauma from a botched investigation," she said.

In summer 2018, Sougat learned of an arrest via a Google news alert. Zhi Min Chen, 44 and Chinese-born, gave a DNA sample after a Cowcaddens assault arrest. It matched evidence from Tracey's flat.

Chen admitted the killing in April 2019 and received at least 20 years in prison. Judge Lord Arthurson called it a brutal, cowardly and murderous attack on a vulnerable young woman in her home.

Tracey's sister Bernadette McCash called the sentence a slap in the face outside Glasgow High Court. "I don't feel it is enough time. As a family we are really disappointed in the sentence. He ran for longer (than 20 years). He hid for longer."

Chen's sentence later dropped to 16 years on appeal.

Sougat told BBC Scotland News in 2019 that the allegations shocked him to the core. He thought the case relied on his early departure from Glasgow and CCTV. His family was shattered, but his thoughts went to Tracey's loved ones.

India's Ministry of External Affairs exonerated him on May 1, 2019. Sapna described the damage as total and irreversible.

In a letter to Modi, seen by BBC Scotland News, Sapna detailed the toll on her and children Sreshtha, 21, Shlok, 18, and Shreya, 16. She said Sougat was branded a fugitive, became unemployable, and the family was forced from their rental home as neighbors shunned them. The children faced isolation.

Sougat relied on his parents and in-laws, who spent their savings and considered selling homes. He turned to alcohol and sank into severe depression from shame and hopelessness. Sapna remained the breadwinner.

"He died as he feared he would - having lost everything, through no fault of his own," she said.

Sapna questioned why it took four years to clear him despite his DNA not matching. "My husband was an innocent man. He committed no crime. He harmed no-one. He co-operated with authorities. He trusted the system. And the system killed him - slowly, painfully, and completely."

The Crown Office in 2019 said Crown Counsel found no basis for further proceedings against Sougat after full review. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs was approached for comment.