Property dispute Bhavnagar man, wife kill his parents, burn bodies to stage fire accident

Vimal claimed to his family as well as the police that a short circuit in the house has sparked a fire, killing his parents while they were asleep. However, the complainant, Rajesh Damji Raninga, the brother of Rekha, noted that the faces of the deceased appeared severely burned while the rest of the house looked untouched by fire.

Vimal gave the police the same explanation when an accidental death report was filed immediately after their death on April 19. The police sent the bodies for autopsy and later handed them over to the family for final rites.

Inspector Chavda mentioned that they had concerns about the couple’s cause of death, as only the bed on which they had been sleeping had apparently caught fire.

When the forensic report reached the police, it stated that Kishor Velji Vaitha died by strangulation. At the same time, Raninga also suspected something was amiss, and when he learned about the cause of death of his brother-in-law, he told the police about the conversations he used to have with Kishor Vaitha.

The FIR stated that Vimal would frequently ask his parents for money. Over time, these demands increased, and he allegedly began putting pressure on his parents to sell their house, shop and jewellery to give him money. But Kishor Vaitha had turned down these demands. Vimal and his wife Hetal had moved out of the house and moved to Rajkot, police said.

Police Inspector V R Chavda told The Indian Express that on the basis of the forensic report of Kishor Vaitha, they detained and subsequently arrested Vimal and Hetal on May 1 after booking them for murder. Vimal allegedly admitted to the killing and gave the police the names of two more persons involved in the crime. On that basis, the police arrested Aamir Khan and Munir Khan from Rajkot on May 2.

On the motive for the alleged killings, Inspector Chavda said, “Vimal is in the imitation jewellery business but he suffered massive losses and incurred a debt of Rs 20 lakh, which is why he urgently needed money to repay loans. He sought the help of Aamir Khan and Munir Khan to kill his parents.”

The postmortem of Rekha Vaitha is awaited, and further investigation is underway, police said.