A FORMER teacher has gone on trial accused of killing his father in Huddersfield.

Jasknwal Rana has been charged with manslaughter following the death of his 75-year-old father earlier this year.

Rana, 33, is said to have grabbed Tarsam Singh in a headlock and punched him three or four times in the face during an incident in the kitchen of their home in Alder Street, Fartown.

Despite bleeding heavily, Mr Singh was able to make his way to a neighbour’s house across the road, but within minutes of the assault he collapsed on the driveway of his own home.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday a post-mortem discovered that Mr Singh, who was a well-known member of the Huddersfield Sikh community, had extensive ascemic heart disease.

Although the pensioner died as a result of the heart condition, prosecutor Simon Phillips QC said the jury would hear that a pathologist’s view was that the violent assault made a “significant contribution” to Mr Singh’s death.

Mr Phillips explained that although Mr Singh’s heart disease could have caused his death at any time he in fact died within minutes of being the victim of an unlawful assault by his son.

The prosecutor said a pathologist would describe how someone being assaulted could suffer physical and emotional stress and that stress would lead to the release of adrenaline which would increase the heart rate.

Mr Phillips said the jury would have to listen to the pathologist’s evidence with great care.

The court heard that on the evening of Mr Singh’s death, his wife’s sister and her husband had come to stay in Huddersfield to attend another relative’s funeral the next day.

The jury was told that during the investigation into Mr Singh’s death two partially-drunk bottles of vodka were found in Rana’s bedroom and the court heard that the initial assault took place in the kitchen of the house after the pensioner made a comment to his son about not drinking too much.