Garden murder: Woman friend on cops radar

Both were working for a commodity firm in Thaltej area of Ahmedabad. While Dilip was a resident of Ognaj and a native of Bayad in Sabarkantha district,Jagruti comes from a poor family living in Jivraj Park area. Her father works with a courier company.

The Vastrapur police station officials said that the girl had given names of two men — Sameer and Santosh — who could be prime suspects. According to the police,the girl knew the two.

Inspector M K Rana of Vastrapur police station said,“The girl changed her statement at least four times on Tuesday before the FIR was lodged and is still changing her statement. She is on our radar as the names of the men that she has given were her friends. She claims that Sameer and Santosh were jealous of her new boyfriend.”

In her statement,Jagruti first said that the assailants had come looking for Dilip and shot him,the police officer said. She then told the police that they came close and attempted to loot them.

“She also claimed the assailants spoke in Hindi saying ‘Jo hai sab de do’ (give us whatever you have),to which Dilip replied that they had no money and nothing else. Then,the assailants shot him. Later,when we inquired more on the appearances and other details of the assailants,she claimed that it was dark,so she didn’t see their faces. However,when she was grilled,she gave us names of the suspects,” Rana said.

The loot and extortion motives are also being probed as Dilip might have borrowed money from somebody,the police said.

At this stage,it needs to be probed whether the suspects themselves came to the spot or hired some contract killers,the police said. “We are on the hunt for the suspects. But it is still not clear whether they fired or they hired professional shooters,” Rana further said.

The police had recovered a bullet shell from the spot which was fired by a country-made pistol. According to the post-mortem reports,the bullet hit Dilip in his chest.

In addition to the case of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code,the police have also booked a case of criminal conspiracy under Section 120 (B) and robbery with an attempt to cause hurt or death under Section 397.