Five arrested for murder of Valsad BJP leader

Surat: Valsad district police have solved BJP leader Shailesh Patel’s murder case and arrested five persons connected with the crime. Police have revealed that the murder was the result of a decade-old enmity between the Vapi leader and Kocharava village resident Sharad Patel alias Sadiyo, who along with his two nephews Mitesh Patel and Vipul Patel, gave ‘supari’ to contract killers a year ago. As per plans, three killers came from Uttar Pradesh and killed Shailesh Patel from point blank range early on May 8 morning. Investigation revealed that the contract was finalised at Rs 19 lakh and a photo of Shailesh Patel was downloaded from social media for the killers. Over 100 police officials from Valsad district were investigating the case and have searched hundreds of CCTV footage along the 1,600km road from Vapi to UP to crack the case. “The murder took place out of old enmity between the Patel families dating back to 2013. In a serious fight between the families that took place near Shailesh Patel’s home, Sharad Patel’s elder brother Ishwar was seriously injured and had gone into coma while Sharad himself got serious injuries on his legs. Ishwar’s sons Pinal and Vipul were also injured in the fight. Ten years later, Ishwar is still bed-ridden and paralyzed while Sharad has a defect in his leg,” said the police.After the 2013 incident, there were attempts earlier to kill Shailesh two times in 2014 and 2017, but he survived. Finally, one year ago, Sharad gave contract to the three UP sharp shooters via Vapi residents Satyendrasing alias Sonu Rajput and Ajay Gamit, police said. The sharp-shooters came to Vapi first in December 2022 and stayed there till January 10, 2023. Gamit and Rajput arranged a bike and accommodation for them in Daman. Despite recce, the duo failed to kill Shailesh and left for UP and returned on May 3 and this time stayed at a farm of Pandor village of Valsad. After staying in Pandor for five days, the hired goons could succeed in killing Shailesh at 7.30am outside a Shiv temple on Rata Koparali road. Patel was killed while waiting for his wife outside the temple in his SUV. All three shooters fled to UP via Nasik after executing the murder. Police have arrested five for conspiring in the murder. They are confident of nabbing the shooters soon. Four of the arrested including Ajay Gamit, Sharad, Mitesh and Vipul are history-sheeters with cases registered against them in Dungra, Pardi and Vapi police stations.