Gurmej Rai

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Gurmej Rai (born 1967) is a British murderer of Asian origin. In September 2004, he paid two friends to set fire to his estranged wife's house in Tipton, West Midlands. The subsequent blaze killed his wife, sister, mother and father. His niece was also in the house but survived and jumping from an upstairs window.

Rai, of West Bromwich, was a pallbearer at the funerals of his victims but he was later arrested and charged with the killings along with his two friends. He was found guilty on four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder on 20 February 2006, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should spend at least 35 years in prison before being considered for parole. This recommendation is likely to keep him behind bars until at least 2040 and the age of 73. His accomplices, who admitted setting the house on fire but denied knowing that people were inside, were found guilty of manslaughter and both received 14-year fixed prison sentences.