Ahmedabad DCB takes over case of Vadodara PI’s ‘missing partner’

The Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) on Tuesday took over the investigation in the case of the missing woman partner of a police inspector (PI) attached to the Vadodara rural Special Operations Group (SOG), who allegedly left her house in Karjan town of Vadodara district on June 5. The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) will assist the Ahmedabad DCB.

The Vadodara district police have been investigating the case of the woman, Sweety Patel, 37, a resident of Karjan, after her father Mahendra Patel filed a missing person’s complaintn at Karjan police station on June 11.

Patel’s live-in partner, Ajay Desai, an inspector attached to the Vadodara district police, was heading the Vadodara rural SOG until he was sent on leave pending investigation in the case.

On Tuesday, Desai underwent a narco analysis for the second consecutive day, Ahmedabad DCB Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Chaitanya Mandlik said.

“We have received the order to take over the investigation and the Gujarat ATS will assist us for technical investigation. We had sent one team of officers to Vadodara to gather details from the local police. We are also looking at the narco analysis of PI Desai,” said Mandlik.

The Vadodara police have also initiated the process to match the DNA of Patel’s two-year-old son and brother with a set of partially charred human bones recovered from an under-construction building in Atalia village in Bharuch.

Mandlik said, “It is too premature to say if the woman is alive or dead… An Assistant Commissioner of Police from the Crime Branch will head the investigation.”

According to police, Ajay Desai, was allegedly living-in with Patel since 2016, after both of them dissolved their previous marriages. However, he legally married another woman in 2017. Ajay and Sweety Patel, who have a two-year-old son from their relationship, had an argument on the evening of June 4 over the issue of their relationship status.

SP Desai had told this newspaper, “Ajay said that they have been having frequent arguments… as Sweety Patel wanted him to divorce his wife and legalise their relationship…”