Gang forged slain widow’s property papers

Rajkot: The investigation into the murder of 72-year-old widow in Sorathiawadi area has once again exposed the scary reign of land mafias in the city.
On Tuesday night, police booked 10 persons and arrested seven of them, who had forged the property documents of victim Jayshree Shukla who was found murdered at Master Society in Sorathiawadi. They have, however, denied their involvement in the murder.

“These 10 persons had forged the property documents of Shukla’s bungalow and were in the process of selling it off. Shukla’s property is worth Rs 1.5 crore,” said Bhaktinagar police inspector V K Gadhvi.

Those arrested were Mohammed Hussein Serasia (45) and Lalubha Jhala (35), both residents of Wankaner town, Vikram Patel (46), Kalpesh Kukadia (28), Rajesh Somani (40), Ranjeet Saria (26) and Ashish Pandya (30), all residents of Rajkot. The other three accused — Vinu Patel, a resident of Sahjanpar village of Morbi taluka, Shanta Parmar of Ambedkarnagar in Vankaner and Kanti Sidhpura — are yet to be arrested.

“The accused had made a duplicate voter’s ID and Aadhaar card in the name of Vasanti Durgashankar, who was Shukla’s neighbour, and issued it in the name of Shanta Parmar, identifying her as Vasanti. They put photographs of Shukla’s house with the survey number of Vasanti’s property to show that it belonged to Vasanti. Shanta signed the documents with the bogus signature of Vasanti stating that she had sold the property to Ranjeet Saria,” said Gadhvi.

Shukla had been living alone for the past 30 years in the house. Some neighbours told police that Shukla’s mental condition was not very stable and sometimes she used to set ablaze the currency notes she received as pension.

Shukla’s decomposed body was found on April 10 after neighbours complained of stench emanating from the house. Her throat was slit with a knife. Police had ruled out loot as the murder motive because no valuables were missing .

Her mother Saraswati had bequeathedthis property to her in 1986 and there was a dispute in the family since then. Police have so recorded statements of nearly 20 relatives of Shukla besides checkign the footage of the CCTVs installed at nearby locations to get the clue of the assailants.