A fake gemstone that took three lives

VADODARA: It is a case that a top cop described as 'An Indian comedy that ended in a Greek tragedy'. The comedy being a 'fakir' handing over a stone that turned out to be a supposedly valuable gemstone to a person in Rajkot. The tragedy being that of a triple murder over the 2,866 carat gemstone whose value too was under a dispute.
The star ruby triple murder case began as a simple missing persons' report regarding brothers Darshan and Mihir Thacker filed by their father Lalitchandra on December 15, 2006.An abduction FIR was subsequently filed by Lalitchandra at the Makarpura police station and the case was transferred to the Sayajigunj police station. The FIR had mentioned gemstone dealer Gopal Haryani, Jayanti Pateliya and Balkrishna Patel as the accused. The group had left Vadodara on December 6, 2006, and remained missing since abut two months. Various theories were floated during this time and the police investigations made little headway till a trap was laid by investigating officer Y A Sheikh in Himmatnagar to nab Pateliya under the pretext of striking a deal for a precious stone. Pateliya fell in the trap on February 6, 2007, and was interrogated.
The revelations left the city stunned. The Thacker brothers and Patel had been killed by Pateliya for the gemstone on December 6 itself. Pateliya had got them hacked to death near a temple near the Jodhpur village of Panchmahal district. The bodies were buried there itself. The bodies were exhumed on February 7, 2007. For two months Pateliya had been trying to sell it. Pateliya's paramour Jyoti Shah too surrendered on February 9. Other accused in the case were also arrested.
The story of the ruby is equally interesting. It was handed over to one Samir Jagot by a 'fakir' in 2004 in the form of a coarse mineral stone. Haryani and Jagot had business ties and Haryani had got the stone valuated in the grey market in Jaipur where it was said to be worth around Rs 2 crore. But the valuation became an issue of dispute. Prominent gemology expert from the city R V Karanth had said that the stone was not a ruby and not very valuable. A valuation made by a Mumbai-based jewellery stating that the ruby was worth over Rs six crore was also found to be fake. Following this Jagot and Haryani were put under arrest.