Ahmedabad: The city crime branch caught a man wanted for 23 years in a double-murder case. Nirupam Kansagara, 53, was arrested in Surat on Saturday.
In 2002, two men, Salim Sheikh and Devshi Bharwad, were murdered by six people in Gandhinagar’s Pethapur village. After the murder, the bodies were put in their own car, which was then set on fire with petrol near Vavol and Uvarsad.
Pethapur police then registered a case under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 365 (kidnapping), 34 (common intention), and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of IPC. Earlier, police arrested four accused. Kansagara was the only accused who was absconding.
After the crime, Kansagara left his home. He lived in different places under fake names. He worked as a generator operator and later started his own generator business. He introduced himself to others as “Munnabhai Patel.”
The crime branch received information that Kansagara was now living in Surat. Based on technical and human sources, police caught him in the Bharuch-Dahej area.
During the investigation, it was found that Kansagara first went to Maharashtra after the murders. Later, he worked on a farm near Chotila for six years. After that, he worked in a company in Halol and then started a generator rental business in Bharuch. In the original case, five accused were arrested earlier and sentenced to life imprisonment. The main accused, Jashu Patel, died in 2009.
The motive for the murder was a financial dispute of Rs 1.40 lakh between Jashu Patel and Salim Sheikh. The city crime branch has now handed over Kansagara to Pethapur police for further action.