Three killed in precious ruby missing case, bodies recovered

Vadodara, Feb 8 (UNI) The city police today recovered bodies of three youth, including two brothers, who were reportedly missing from Vadodara for the last couple of months with a precious ruby worth Rs 2.50 crore.

According to Assistant Police Commissioner T R Parmar, the interrogation of prime accused Jayanti Pateliya, trapped by the city police at Himmatnagar in Sabarkantha district on Tuesday, led to the recovery of the three decomposed bodies today at Panam road under Shehra taluka in Panchmals district.

After Pateliya, a teacher at a primary school in Shehra, confessed to the crime during his interrogation at an undisclosed place in the city. He was taken to the spot by a team of city police and the bodies of the three youths were identified as Darshan Thaker, his brother Mihir and one Balkrishna Patel and were dug out from a farm land.

Mr Parmar, who has rushed to the spot where the trio was buried, said the police was yet to recover the precious ruby belonging to a Rajkot-based bussinesman Samir Jagot, who had given the stone to an agent, Gopal Haryani, in December 2006, in order to get it valued by experts.

Later, Haryani handed over the ruby to Darshan. On December 6, 2006, altogether five persons, including the deceased, Pateliya and his third wife Jyoti, left with the ruby for Jaipur in the car of prime accused Pateliya to get it valued by diamond experts there.

A fortnight later, a case of kidnapping was lodged against Pateliya in the Makarpura police station by the father of Darshan and Mihir after the five members went missing. Police immediately swung into action and recovered Pateliya's car at Mangadh on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of Vadodara police laid a trap and nabbed Pateliya near Sabar dairy at Himmatnagar on Tuesday by posing as customers to buy the gem. Though Pateliya was nabbed, other members of his gang, who had come for the deal in two cars, managed to escape.

ACP Parmar said all the three victims were hacked to death by Pateliya and some of his accomplices at Shehra on the same night to get possession of the ruby when the accused came to know that the precious stone could fetch about Rs 3 crore after it was polished.

Police had launched a manhunt to nab the gang members, including Paleliya's wife, who accompanied the victims from Vadodara.

UNI