34 years on, Gujarat police crack woman’s murder; two brothers held

Thirty-four years after a woman was allegedly murdered and buried, the Gujarat police have arrested two brothers following the exhumation of skeletal remains from a house in Ahmedabad, an official said on Saturday. The crime branch nabbed the accused, Shamshuddin Khedawala (61) and his brother Iqbal (63), in connection with a 1992 murder case, after DNA from the exhumed bones matched with siblings of the victim, Farzana Doshu Radhanpuri, he said. The victim was Shamshuddin's wife, and the latter had allegedly killed her with the help of his brother and two others. They then buried the body in the pit in the veranda of a house in Qutub Nagar in the Vatva area, the official said. Acting on a tip-off, the police dug at the site on April 29 to recover a jawbone and teeth, which were subsequently analysed by the Forensic Medicine Department at B.J. Medical College to establish the victim's identity. Following enquiries with locals, the police traced the victim's family to Dholka taluka, where her brother, Liyakat Ali, revealed she had been missing for 35 years. To confirm the identity, investigators compared DNA from the skeletal remains with blood samples from Farzana's sister, Mehbooba, resulting in a positive match, the official said. The family informed the police that Farzana had left home 35 years ago and had later married Shamsuddin, he said. Based on the information, the police registered a first information report (FIR) against the Khedawala brothers and one Abdul Javarawala and Shaliyabibi Pathan, both of whom are deceased. As per the FIR, Shamshuddin, along with his brother Iqbal, his friend Abdul Javarawala, and Shaliyabibi Pathan, allegedly killed Farzana and buried the body in a pit in the veranda and sealed it. A case has been registered against all four accused under sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, police said. The brothers have been arrested and will be produced in the court on Saturday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ajit Rajian said.

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