RAJKOT: Three bootleggers were sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday for the murder of their 19-year-old associate and disposing of his body, after cutting it into pieces, into a 400-feet borewell in Mandvi taluka of Kutch in February 2018. One of the accused suspected that the deceased was having an illicit affair with his wife, so he and his aides decided to bump him off.
The additional sessions judge MM Patel at Bhuj, also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on the accused — Ram Pabhu Gadhvi, Khimraj Hari Gadhvi and Naran Punshi Gadhvi — for murder of Devang Gadhvi on the night of February 12, 2018.
The public prosecutor in the case, Kalpesh Goswami, said that the court also ordered the accused to pay Rs 75,000 to the family of the deceased. “The court in its 216-page judgement took into consideration the arguments made by the prosecution. It also took into consideration statements of 28 witnesses and 69 other documentary evidence, for convicting the accused,” he added.
According to case details, Devang was into bootlegging and used to get his supplies from accused Ram and Khimraj. Due to the nature of business, Devang used to frequently visit Ram’s home in Nana Bhaliya village of Mandvi. However, after some time Ram started suspecting that Devang was having an affair with his wife. Ram’s associate and one of the accused, Naran, had once warned Devang and asked him not to talk to Ram’s wife.
But Devang did not pay heed to it. So, Ram decided to bump off Devang with help of Khimraj and Naran.
As planned, Ram called Devang on the evening of February 12, 2018, and asked him to come to his farm to pick up a beer consignment. So, Devang left his house on his bike and told his parents that he was going to meet Ram and would return the next morning.
When Devang reached the farm, Ram took him to a pond in the village where Naran and Khimraj were already waiting. As soon as Devang got off the bike, Ram strangled him using a rope while Naran and Khimraj held him to the ground. After killing Devang, the trio tried to push his body into a borewell, but its opening was too narrow. So, they got an axe from a nearby farm and cut Devang’s body into five pieces and put them inside the borewell. They also left Devang’s bike near Jainam Nagar in Mandvi town.
On February 13, 2018, when Devang did not return, his father Manek Gadhvi lodged a missing complaint. Based on the details given by Manek and the call records of the deceased, police rounded up Ram, Khimraj and Naran. During interrogation, the trio confessed to having killed Devang and disposing of his body parts in the borewell.
It took six days to excavate the borewell and extract Devang’s body parts.