Ishtpal Singh found guilty of friend's picnic murder at Shillings Park, Victoria

A man who bludgeoned his close friend to death with a metal pole after a picnic has been found guilty of murder .

Ishtpal Singh, 32, stared straight ahead as a Victorian Supreme Court jury delivered their verdict on Tuesday while members sitting in the public gallery wiped away tears.

Jurors had been told Singh was driven by grievances when he “carefully planned” the murder of his friend, Anmoral Singh Bajwa, in January 2025.

But the defence argued he was severely mentally ill and was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions.

Singh had picked up Bajwa on the evening of January 20 when they went to buy food and alcohol for a barbecue at Shillings Park, near the victim’s home in southwest Melbourne .

Unbeknownst to his friend, Singh had earlier that day scoped out the park in Mambourin and hid a metal pole in shrubbery, prosecutor Jim Shaw told jurors.

After the pair ate and drank for more than four hours, security footage captured Bajwa on a video call while Singh relocated the metal pole closer to where they were sitting.

Just after midnight, 17 metal clangs - one after another - echoed through the empty park as Singh used the metal pole to brutally bash his friend in the head and face.

Singh then drove to Echuca to see his ex-wife before handing himself in to police.

On the way there, Shaw said he called two friends and told them he had hit Bajwa after the victim would not stop taunting him.

Months before the friends’ last meeting, their mutual friends were wrapped up in a commercial dispute over the break-up of a transport company, Shaw told the jury.

Singh, who was not a party to the dispute, decided to get involved and took issue when Bajwa opted to “stay out of it”.

Meanwhile, the pair had decided to buy a truck for Singh’s brother to work with, agreeing to pay half each.

But when Singh went to collect the truck, he discovered he needed to pay an extra $5000 - a commission to Bajwa’s friend who assisted with the deal.