Vadodara: Criminal past catches up with murderer 20 years later

VADODARA: Living incognito under a pseudo name couldn’t save this painter from Dabhoi after his criminal past caught up with him two decades later.
Mahendra alias Dahya Tadvi, a 65-year-old murder convict’s game ended as soon as Vadodara rural police knocked at his door at Kamrej in Surat on Monday.
On the run for 20 long years after jumping an interim bail in December 2000, Tadvi had been served a life term in 1993 by a sessions court in Bharuch for torching his wife out of infidelity issues. He was then sent to Vadodara Central Jail. What happened thereafter only came to luight on Monday.
“When we called his name as Dahyabhai, he responded and when asked about his surname he blurted out Tadvi,” said sub-inspector A K Raulji of parole furlough squad. Tadvi had adopted his second wife, Ranjan’s surname – Dhodiya (Patel) — and abandoned his first name Mahendra. He adopted his nickname Dahya which is still his identity among his village people, cops said.
“Later, although he confessed, he was dumbfounded realizing that cops could see through his façade that he so cleverly fooled people for so long,” Raulji added.
After jumping bail, Tadvi came to Surat and worked in a factory and lived at Bhatha village. It was here that he met his second wife, Ranjan, whom he in a simple ceremony. After marriage, Tadvi adopted her surname and moved into her father’s house at Navinagri in Kamrej. Both started working as painters and were living alone. Police said that even Ranjan did not know about his past.
Police had been keeping a watch on him for a week. “It was through our information network and after questioning his family and friends that we could find him,” cops added.