Ahmedabad: Gang rape accused kills self in jail

AHMEDABAD: A gang rape accused, 36, was found hanging in his cell in Sabarmati Central Jail on Wednesday, said police officers.
Cops said that he committed suicide as he was anxious over not getting bail and he wanted to go out from the prison.

The deceased was identified as Jaimin Patel, a resident of South Bopal, who was imprisoned since January 2021 after he was arrested by crime branch in a gang rape case, in which a Rajkot woman accused him and three others of drugging and raping her.
“When a jail officer went to Patel’s cell in Barrack No. 3, he found him hanging with a bedsheet which was tied with a pipe of bathroom tap and a grill of window,” said a police officer.
The officer said that jail authorities called a doctor who checked and declared him dead.
Later, his body was taken to Civil Hospital in Asarwa for postmortem and a case of accidental death was registered with Ranip police.
Inspector J B Khambhla of Ranip police said that they did not get any suicide note from the deceased.
“But inmates including thee co-accused in the gang rape case told cops that he was tense as he was not getting bail,” he said.
“He did not get bail a single time after he was arrested by the crime branch in January 2021. This was the cause of frustration for him due to which he ended life,” said Khambhla.
Patel along with Pragnesh Patel of Sola, Jitendra Goswami of Vasna and Maldev Bharwad of Isanpur were held after a 26-year-old woman from Rajkot alleged that she was gang-raped by them when she went to them seeking a job.
She had alleged in her complaint with women’s police station (west) that she was taken to Udaipur, Abu, Mandvi, and Gandhidham where she was gang-raped by the accused.
She also alleged that the accused raped her in a moving SUV. After drugging her, they allegedly took her photographs and videos in compromising position to blackmail her.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)