City gemstone trader identifies his missing star ruby

Vadodara, Feb 10 (UNI) A city-based gemstone trader, today identified his missing star ruby that led to a sensational triple murder in the Panam forest area in Panchmahals district.

While police did not believe that purple coloured ruby of the size of a paper weight recovered from prime accused Jayanti Pateliya' wife Jyoti yesterday, was so precious, Gopal Haryani, who had handed over the ruby to the victims nearly three months ago to get it valued by experts in Mumbai and Jaipur, continued to claim that it was a rare gemstone valued at Rs two to three crores.

Haryani was called to the Sayajiganj police station in the day to identify whether it was the same ruby that went missing with four persons, including Pateliya and three other deceased youths, after December 6, 2006. Earlier, Bikesh Thaker, the elder brother of slain Darshan and Mihir, had claimed that it was not the same one which he had seen before his brothers left with the ruby for Jaipur.

Assistant Police Commissioner T R Parmar said though Haryani had identified it as the same ruby given to the victims, the stone now in possession of Sayajiganj police, would be examined further by experts to find out if it was of any value. Haryani, who had got the stone from a Rajkot-based gemstone dealer to get it valued, however denied that he had sold it off to Jyoti for Rs 6 lakhs, the ACP said.

After remaining underground for a couple of months following intense search operations by city police in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra for the four missing persons and the ruby, 26-year-old Jyoti surrendered before the Sarkhej police station in Ahmedabad yesterday along with the ruby to claim that neither she nor her husband Pateliya, recently arrested by the police in Himmatnagar, were involved in the killing of the three youths.

Jyoti, who was brought to Vadodara last night after she surrendered with her 4-year-old son Chintu and the ruby, said she deserted her first husband Sunil Shah in July, 2006 and fled with her son from Panchmahals to Vadodara to stay with Pateliya.

Denying that they were involved in the triple murder, Jyoti said Pateliya had handed over the ruby to her at Chittor a few days after the four set out for Jaipur on December 6.

The duo then visited Kumbh Mela at Allahabad but she decided to surrender herself along with the ruby after Pateliya made a disappearing act at the Kumbh, Jyoti stated before the police.

Meanwhile, police teams had been sent to different parts of Gujarat to nab four other accused allegedly hired by Pateliya for Rs 20000 to eliminate the three youths accompanying him to Jaipur, in order to grab the ruby.

UNI