Seven held for youth's murder

VADODARA: The Varnama police arrested seven accused in connection with the murder of a youth from Mahemdabad in the city. The youth was murdered over a love affair he had with a girl who was engaged to another youth from Vadodara.
The body of the youth was found on Tuesday in a charred condition at Kapurai area. A caretaker of a farm had grown suspicious regarding a fire he spotted late on Monday night.On checking, he found the remains of a body in the fire and informed the police.
Investigations revealed that the body was of Utsav Brahmbhatt, a resident of Mahemdabad. While DNA tests are being conducted to identify the body, the investigations so far have proved that the body is that of Utsav.
Utsav, 22, had arrived in Vadodara with Jagdish alias John Kahar to attend a wedding. Late on Monday night, when Jagdish was leaving for home from the wedding in Navapura, Utsav insisted that they should go to smoke a cigarette first. The duo went near Polo Ground to buy cigarettes. A group of youths on motorcycles abducted Utsav and Jagdish from here.
Utsav was done to death near Kapurai by the youth, who strangled him while Jagdish was thrown in the Mahi River near Vasad. Utsav's body was also charred using tyres and wood at Kapurai. Jagdish had witnessed the entire episode before he was thrown into the river. He was frightened and went back to Mahemdavad and kept mum on the incident.
Jagdish gave vivid details of the incident after it came to light that he was with Utsav just before Utsav went missing. "We have reconstructed the entire episode with him. His account seems to be true and reliable for now," said Varnama police sub-inspector R J Gohil.
An affair between Utsav and a girl, Kajal Kahar, is said to be the reason for the murder. Kajal was engaged to one Kiran Kahar, but told Kiran about the affair and wanted to break the engagement. Kiran was furious over this and allegedly hatched the conspiracy to kill Utsav. In fact, Kajal had asked Utsav not to go to Vadodara.
The accused in the case have been identified as Kiran, Ashish Kahar, Ahmed Sheikh, Imran Sheikh, Mahendra Kahar, Karan Kahar and Parshottam Kahar. They were arrested by the Varnama police on Saturday morning. Gohil said their remand would be sought for interrogation.