Himmatnagar, 27 July 2013

North Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district is observing strike today to protest the murder of district headquarter Himmatnagar based Financer Dharmendrabhai Patel by one Sajid Akbar Ali. Bandh call given by Samaj Suraksha Samiti has evoked near total support in Himmatnagar and Idar, while in rural side, the bandh has evoked partial to major response.

To recover over a million Rupees he had landed to Ali, on July 23 morning, financer Dharmendrabhai Bhaichand Patel went to Ali’s Farmex agro firm located near Vaktapur village. Since then Patel was untraced.

After initial efforts to trace him failed, Patel’s family filed complaint in Himmatnagar rural police station. Police first checked Patel’s call details and recovered Patel’s car from parking lot of Shyam Vihar Avenue in Vijapur. Police then called Ali.

On July 25th, police found specific details in Patel’s call records, and called Ali again for questioning.

Police sent three teams to Vijapur side highways to fine any clue.

On July 26th, during questioning Ali confessed he had murdered Patel. Ali confessed that he had killed Patel at around 10.30 am. He said he later buried Patel’s dead body 6 km away from Vaktapur in Gadh village graveyard late in the evening. Ali took police team to Muslim graveyard of Gadha village where he had buried dead body ot Patel. At around 10.00 am in presence of Sub divisional magistrate and Mamlatdar, Patel’s body was recovered. Patel’s dead body was taken to Himmatnagar civil hospital first and later to Forensic Science Laboratory in Ahmedabad.

Police believe that there were at least 8 persons involved in this incident of crime, because on one hand Patel’s dead body was buried, and on the other hand his car was taken to Vijapur to mislead the investigation.

Farms of Ali and Patel were located next to each other and both enjoyed friendly relations. After murdering Patel, Ali had wrapped Patel’s body in plastic.

District police has deployed extra force to prevent backlash in Gadha and Motivadol villages. Patel was originally from Motivadol which is located next to Gadha. He was Panchayat member elected from word no.6.

Ali initially lied before police

When police first called Sajid for questioning he lied and told police that Patel had visited his place at 10.00 am to collect money and had received Rs. 10 lakh, after which Patel left the place. When Patel was leaving, he received a phone call. Patel asked the person on other end of the phone to wait for him on road.

When police received Patel’s phone call details, it was found that Patel had received no phone call contrary to what was claimed by Ali. Police then focused the probe on Ali and finally Ali confessed the crime. It should be noted here that it was Ali who had called Patel a day before murder and asked him to collect the money.