Vadodara: 68-year-old realtor’s accident is pre-planned murder, say cops

VADODARA: After over a month-and-a-half, an investigation into the death of a 68-year-old old realtor who was found charred in his car on Sindhrot Road, revealed that he was murdered.
The Vadodara rural police arrested five men and a woman in connection with the murder. Two of them used to work for the deceased realtor Haresh Amin at his farmhouse in Sindhrot.
Amin’s body was found charred in his car on the morning of May 18. The cops had registered a case of accidental death. It was initially believed that Amin might have lost control of his car and rammed it into the pipe kept by the roadside. The mystery of how the car caught fire so quickly and why Amin couldn’t exit the vehicle, however, baffled the cops.
The family of the deceased suspecting some foul play requested the cops to investigate the incident. The police said that the special operations group (SOG) sleuths received tip-off about the involvement of two men working with Amin. “We learnt that Praveen Malivad and Bharat Malivad, who worked for Amin, had borrowed a big amount from him,” said Rohan Anand, superintendent of police (SP) rural, Vadodara.
“Amin was demanding the money back so Praveen and Bharat decided to kill him as they didn’t want to pay back the loan. The duo brought in three other men — Sunil Baria, Soma Baria and Sukhram Damor, all residents of Mahisagar district, for bumping off Amin,” Anand told TOI.
On the night of May 17, Praveen’s wife Laxmi did a recce of Amin’s farmhouse at Sindhrot where he used to stay alone.
Praveen and Bharat entered the premises and kidnapped him. They took him in his car with the help of Sunil, Soma and Sukhram. The accused first took Amin to an isolated spot near Sherkhi village and thrashed him with sticks and stones.
“After he fell unconscious, they put Amin in his car and drove it on the Sindhrot Road. The accused rammed the car into a pipe to make it seem like an accident. They then poured some petrol on Amin and also inside the car, and set it on fire,” the police added. “It was a pre-planned murder,” Anand said. Investigators said that they had kept an eye on the people working for Amin after he died. He was a farmer and also dealt in properties. The police said that it was investigating the involvement of more people in the crime.