Three arrested for kidnap and murder of Rajkot businessman

Ahmedabad, Jan 13 (UNI) Three persons, including a policeman, have been arrested by sleuths of the crime branch in connection with the abduction and and murder of a Rajkot-based businessman Vijay Kotak.

City Crime Branch Joint Police Commissioner (JPC) Ashish Bhatia told mediapersons here today that the arrested trio are Satish Valjibhai Gadhvi (35), Pravin Manubhai Gadhvi (29), who is an armed police constable of Vadodara city police, and Jaidev Valjibhai Gadhvi (38).

Mr Bhatia that said on January 10 the trio had abducted Vijay with the intention of getting a big ransom from his family.

However, after the kidnapping, the accused were aware that all police stations had been alerted to track them, and subsequently they strangulated Vijay to death on the Rajkot-Surendra highway near Syla village in Surendra district, yesterday.

Later, in a bid to destroy evidence that could have led to identification of Vijay, his body was burnt by pouring petrol on him by the trio.

The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs two crore from the Kotak family, Bhatia said.

The rope used to murder of Vijay and his mobile were destroyed and packed in a plastic bag, which was later thrown into the Danteshwar Lake in Vadodara.

Satish and Jaidev are brothers, while Pravin is their nephew.

Satish and Pravin are residents of Vadodara city while Jaidev is staying at Rajkot.

The body of Vijay was recovered from Sayala village in Surendranagar district yesterday. He owned a showroom called ''Chetan hardware'' at the Canal Road in Rajkot.

He was called by the trio who claimed that they were income-tax officers and wanted to give him information about the raids to be carried out at his place.

When Vijay arrived at the pre-decided place, he was kidnapped by them.

UNI