Liquor addict brutalized to death in correction facility in Gujarat's Patan

PALANPUR: The death of a young man undergoing treatment for liquor and drug addiction in Patan last month has turned out to be a grisly murder executed by the manager of the de-addiction centre and seven others who subjected the inmate to horrific brutality lasting nearly 90 minutes.
They not only killed him but also cremated the body, telling his relatives that he had died a natural death caused by a sudden and drastic fall in blood pressure.
The macabre crime came to light just two days ago when Patan town's B-division police started an investigation after getting information that an inmate named Hardik Suthar had been killed and his death passed off as natural. The police scanned the CCTV footage of the facility and blew the lid of the entire crime.
Suthar, a native of the adjoining Mehsana district, was admitted to the Jyona de-addiction centre run by Surat-based charitable trust about six months ago.
"On February 17, Suthar went to the bathroom and tried to slit his wrist. The facility's manager Sandeep Patel and seven to eight other people then tied his hands and legs and brutally thrashed him with a thick plastic pipe for nearly two hours.
Of these, two of them even burnt a portion of the pipe with a lighter and poured the hot liquid on Suthar's private parts and burnt his pubic hair," said Mehul Patel, inspector, B-division police station, who is investigating the case.
Patel said Sandeep resorted to such grotesque crime only to establish his hold on the facility. They also warned other patients that they would meet the same fate as Suthar if they threw any tantrums and resorted to anything like the deceased did in the bathroom.
After Suthar died, Sandeep and others took him to a private hospital in their car where the doctor refused to admit him.
For the entire night, they kept the body in Sandeep's car. The next day, Sandeep called up Suthar's maternal uncle Chandrakant Mistry to inform him that he had died due to low BP.
Such was their audacity that the accused remained present with Suthar's relatives at the crematorium for the final rites.
There are about 20-25 patients in the centre that has been operating in the town for the last nine months.
Besides Sandeep, police arrested Jitu Patel, Jainish, Gaurav Macchimar, Mahesh Rathore, Jayesh Chaudhary and Nitin Chaudhary. Some of these accused were working as attendants at the de-addiction centre.
The complaint was lodged by Mistry.