One more arrested for infant’s slaying

AHMEDABAD: Lakhan Thakor of Chamanpura, one of the absconding persons allegedly involved in the killing of a 20-day-old girl on Friday night in Chamanpura, was arrested by crime branch late on Saturday night and handed over to Meghaninagar police. Two others, Satish Patni and Hitesh Marwadi, had been arrested immediately after the killing.
DCP Zone 4 Neeraj Badgujar said they had formed teams and with help from will soon arrest the two remaining accused, Deepak and Gopal Patni.“The was a revenge killing as the one of the accused’s relatives, who lives in Shaherkotda, was allegedly beaten up by members of the deceased infant’s family. There is no doubt that the accused are notorious in the area,” added Badgujar.
A group of goons, whom locals say are bootleggers, rushed into a chawl in the Chamanpura locality of Meghaninagar with sticks and iron pipes and beat up people on Friday night.
In the melee, they struck a 20-day-old girl who was in her mother’s lap, on the head with a stick. The infant was rushed to hospital but was declared dead.
While police arrested Hitesh Marwadi and Satish Patni they insisted that the accused are not bootleggers. On Saturday, residents of Champanpura gathered at the police commissioner's office at Shahibaug and asserted that the accused were involved in the liquor trade and that 22 liquor dens are flourishing in their area and are controlled by notorious elements who create an atmosphere of fear.
While stating that the accused were goons and were feared in the area, Badgujar said that police have so far not found any of the accused to be linked with the illegal liquor trade.
On the other hand, police initiated a crackdown on liquor dens in Meghaninagar, led by a DCP-rank officer involving more than a 100 personnel, said a police source.
Inspector P G Sarvaiya said the security deployments made on Friday night are still in place. “Personnel deployed include one inspector, three sub-inspectors and 80 other ranks. They have been deployed to defuse any situation that could emerge during of after the cremation of the infant,” he added.
According to the complaint lodged by Laxmi Patni (45), a resident of Bapalal chawl in Chamanpura and the maternal grandmother of the deceased, her daughter Khusbhu had given birth to the girl on May 17, 2019.
Poilce officials said Patni claimed in her FIR that when they were sleeping outside their house on Friday night, the accused, armed with sticks and pipes rushed in and started hitting them.