My son’s teenage murderer got a ninja sword over a Post Office counter – we need a law change to stop it happening again

“My eyes are always teary, and he never leaves my mind,” said Pooja Kanda, whose 16-year-old son, Ronan, was stabbed through the heart with a ninja sword in a case of mistaken identity near their family home in Wolverhampton.

On the same day of the brutal murder, one of his killers, Prabjeet Veadhesa, a boy from his school, collected the 22-inch weapon over a Post Office counter, without any ID or age checks, after using an adult’s credit card to purchase it online.

The tragic death took place almost four years ago, but now Ms Kanda, speaking on the eve of receiving an OBE at Buckingham Palace for her work to prevent knife crime, believes progress is finally being made to address systemic failures.

Last year, new legislation named after her son, Ronan’s Law, made it illegal to sell, make or import ninja swords to the UK.

Now, amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, which will make it mandatory for collection point sites, such as the Post Office, to check ID on knives, are going through the House of Lords.

Meanwhile, a consultation is being run by the government for a licensing system for sellers and imports of knives, which would include rules for age verification and secure packaging.

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“Four years ago, I lost my son to a horrific knife attack in which he didn’t stand a chance,” said Ms Kanda. “I saw the ninja sword, I couldn’t believe it, and it still haunts me to this day. If these measures were in place today, Ronan would have been here.

“That’s what keeps me going, it keeps me fighting to save other children who are at risk to this awful knife situation we have.”

Ronan was walking home from a friend’s house where he had gone to buy a PlayStation controller when he was ambushed by Veadhesa and Sukhman Shergill, both aged 17, in June 2022.

Suffering two deep wounds, Ronan tried running home, but collapsed two doors away from his house.

As word quickly got around of the stabbing, Ms Kanda, who had been at a meditation class, tried calling her son. After being quickly driven home by a friend, she arrived to find police tape across the road.

“Within seconds, everything changed, my whole life was shattered,” she said. “He was a beautiful boy who never deserved this. So now we stand up for him, and every other young person.”

During the murder trial, Ms Kanda and her family were told how Veadhesa had bought the ninja sword and a jungle machete from a website, before collecting them from a Post Office, with no age or identity verification checks.

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The Post Office told The Independent that the retail partner operating the branch involved had changed after the incident, with the new operator having taken part in an internal inquiry into what happened. It said the Royal Mail had guidance in place on dangerous objects that all Post Office branches were required to follow.

Royal Mail said the package had been sent using an Age Verification service, and it was the Post Office branch’s responsibility to check for age at point of collection.

A government review on online knife sales, published last January, said Ronan’s death showed the policy at collection sites such as the Post Office on checking ID was not always adhered to, and “required urgent attention”.

Ms Kanda said it was one of a number of systemic failings that led to her son’s death, which also included a lack of supervision of the killers, previously known to police and education and social care in the West Midlands area.

She said she was determined to close any loophole allowing the purchase of knives by young children.

It comes as the latest figures provided toThe Independent by the Ministry of Justice showed there were 1,120 children convicted for knife possession in England and Wales in the year ending September 2025, up from 981 in 2022.

This month, two boys were stabbed at school in Brent, north west London, and a teacher was attacked at a school in Pembrokeshire.

“Sellers, buyers, and distributors must assume greater responsibility for their role in the deadly trade of knives,” said Ms Kanda, who last year met prime minister Sir Keir Starmer as part of his coalition to fight knife crime.

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“Without proper ID checks, the online sale of these bladed articles played a crucial role in this tragedy. I not only want proper checks done on ID by sellers of knives online and in shops, but also for ID checks on people collecting the items to make sure they do not get into the wrong hands.

“With every knife incident I read or watch about, I know we must try harder to stop this awful crime. It’s gone on too long and has taken too many lives like my son’s.”

At the launch of the government consultation on a licensing system for knife sellers and importers in December, crime and policing minister Sarah Jones said: “We want to know if licensing measures like those in this consultation could save lives by making knife sales safer and more accountable and stop them falling into the wrong hands.”

In a statement issued on Monday, a Post Office spokesperson said: “We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Ronan. We have met with Ms Kanda on a couple of occasions and remain deeply moved by the pain she has suffered, but inspired by the campaign she is running to rid our streets of these dangerous knives.”

Anyone wanting to comment on the consultation should visit: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/licensing-for-knife-sales