Tejas Patel, a salesman at an electronic goods showroom near Marigold Circle, allegedly confessed during marathon interrogation that he had poisoned his wife Shobhana (36) and daughter Kavya and strangulated both of them on the intervening night of October 10 and 11. He was strangled to death.
Patel initially made a theory that he was not responding in sleep and took him to a private hospital near his home where he was declared brought dead. However, traces of poison found in their bodies, strangulation marks on Shobhana’s neck and the rat killer found in the junk on their terrace raised questions.
On October 11, when Patel was first questioned, he pretended to be in a state of shock and was later allowed to go home. But when the police did a deeper search, there were startling revelations as Patel’s internet search history revealed that he had tried to find ‘easy’ ways of killing and poisoning.
On Tuesday, when Patel was questioned for hours about the search history and the rat killer, he broke down and admitted to killing both. “For the last few years there were some disputes between Patel and Shobha and her and her in-laws.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Lakhdhirsinh Zala said, “He also liked one of his associates, but he was not interested in her, so there were several trigger points due to which he committed the crime.”
Murders due to marital discord
Patel’s interrogation also revealed that his sister Sudha also had some marital tensions, with Shobhana refusing to intervene and she used to have regular fights with Patel’s mother and her brother Sudha.
Her ego has also been hurt by living in her in-laws’ house for the last five years on Shobhana’s insistence.
Police said Patel was under a lot of pressure while dealing with the situation and decided to kill his wife and daughter. On the night of 10 October, when Shobhana and Kavya returned from their garba at the common plot of their society, Patel fed them ice-cream that kills rats and the trio went to sleep.
After a while, Patel wakes up and strangles Shobhana and strangles Kavya to make sure they are dead.
After an hour he went downstairs to wake up his brother-in-law Jitendra Baria and said that Shobhana and Kavya are not responding. On Wednesday, based on Baria’s complaint, Patel was booked for double murder and was taken into custody.
Initially, the police did not take strict action against the accused. Tejas Patel As he pretended to be in a state of shock and sadness.
Police sources said Patel broke down several times during interrogation as guilt started building up in him. Even now, after his detention, the police is keeping a close watch on him so that he does not get any wrong thoughts.
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