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Journalism of Courage
Three weeks ago, a couple from Nadiad town in Kheda district allegedly drew inspiration from Bollywood movie ‘Drishyam’ and then killed a 29-year-old woman — who was their neighbour — to steal her gold chain of 70 grams. The body was then thrown into the Mahi Canal. After allegedly selling the gold chain for about Rs 3 lakh, the couple went on with their lives and used the money to buy a two-wheeler and new clothes for their three children, said police. But they eventually landed in the police net this week.
The Nadiad Rural Police on Saturday conducted a reconstruction of the sequence of events. Jaydeep Soni and his wife Lata, the accused, killed their neighbour Saumiya Kalla (29), eyeing her gold chain to overcome their ‘financial crisis’, said officials.
Police said that the accused tried to mislead the officials during the investigation, and claimed that they were travelling — inspired by the plot in Drishyam — at the time of the incident. They showed officials bus tickets to back up their claim, and also “recorded false statements” to evade arrests but were eventually caught due to conflicting versions and technical evidence, including a CCTV footage where they could be allegedly seen travelling on their two-wheeler with the body of the victim in a jute sack to the Mahi Canal.
As per the details received from police, Saumiya had gone “missing” from her house on September 28. A missing persons complaint was filed at Nadiad Town police station by her husband, Chidambaram Kalla, a vessel vendor, who spent the day travelling to different towns and villages to sell his ware.
Police said that Saumiya’s body was recovered from the Mahi Canal on September 30. The primary cause of the death in the post-mortem was said to be “drowning”. However, the police could not begin recording statements or probe deeper into the case as her husband had departed for their native village in Tamil Nadu for her final rites. It was after Kalla returned to Nadiad this week that the police began recording statements and suspected a foul play.
Police found that Saumiya, among all the neighbours, only visited the house of the accused in the neighbourhood as they “struck conversations” over food since the couple ran a tiffin service business that had run into hard times.
Inspector JH Vaghela of Nadiad rural told The Indian Express that on the day they decided to kill their neighbour, the couple had summoned Saumiya to their house at around 7.30 pm.
“The accused knew that the woman was alone at home until her husband returned late. On that day, they called her to their home on the pretext of discussing a recipe and while she was in the kitchen, they smothered her and then hit her with a blunt object on her head,” he said.
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