Man & woman fell in love in Surat jail while serving life term, jumped parole, married; held from Haryana 5 years later

According to police, the SOG tracked down the couple by tracing Call Data Records (CDR) of the man’s sister, who lives in Bihar.

Kinnary has been convicted for bludgeoning her husband Hitesh Patel to death in 2010 along with her boyfriend Manoj Patel and another accused identified as Vasu, who is still wanted in the case. Her boyfriend died during the commission of the crime, police said.

On the other hand, Mansuri has been convicted for pouring kerosene over his wife and setting her ablaze in 2008, in the Limbayat area of Surat. His mother was also an accused in the case.

The two were sentenced in the respective cases and sent to Surat Central Jail, where they met at the family members’ visiting room and fell in love, said police sources.

Two murder cases

Kinnary’s case goes back to December 29, 2010, when she was travelling along with her husband Hitesh, Manoj and Vasu in a car. According to police, she sprinkled chilly powder on her husband as Manoj struck him repeatedly with an axe on Dharampur road. After the murder, the car they were travelling in crashed into a fence of a farmhouse. Manoj suffered a heart attack and died on the spot, while Kinnary and Vasu managed to escape. Before fleeing the scene, Kinnary repeatedly hit Manoj, her boyfriend, on the head with a stone, in an attempt to mislead the police into believing that the deaths resulted from an altercation between the two over her, police said.

Valsad police had registered an offence of double murder against Kinnary Patel and Vasu. They were booked under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 511 (Punishment for attempt to commit offences punishable for life imprisonment), 120 (criminal conspiracy), 34 (Act done by several people in furtherance of common intention). The Valsad district and sessions court convicted Kinnary Patel and Vasu for life imprisonment in the double murder of her husband, Hitesh Patel, and her boyfriend Manoj Patel, on November 27, 2013. She was lodged in the women’s barricade in the Surat prison, later.

Mansuri, a migrant from Buxar in Bihar lived in the Limbayat area of Surat. His case dates back to 2009 when he was accused of setting his wife ablaze at his house in Ichhaba society in Limbayat and was booked for murder along with his mother. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment by Surat Sessions Court in June 2012. Mansuri’s mother was let off on August 15, 2024, due to her age and illness.

How police cracked the case

Valsad police said that Kinnary was released on furlough on September 9, 2017, and Mansuri was released on parole on May 28, 2018. The duo did not return to jail and fled from their respective homes.

Police searched for Mansuri at his native place, Belhari village in Buxar district in Bihar, and Kinnary at Chikhla village in Valsad, but could not find them.

The Surat Central jail authorities had registered an offence against Kinnary and Mansuri at Valsad Rural and Limbayat police stations in 2019 and 2018, under Prison Act sections 51(a) and 51(b).

During the investigation, Valsad SOG officials got information from sources that they were seen together in the visitor’s room. First they got on Mansuri’s trail and left for Belhari where they came in contact with Nurunnisha, Mansuri’s older sister and tried to get information about him, but failed.

Valsad SOG Police inspector A U Roz said, “We took CDR (Call Data records) of Nurunnisha Mansuri, and we zeroed in on 12 suspected phone numbers. We found that one of the phone numbers was registered in the name of Mohammed Riyaz Mansuri himself. He had submitted his Aadhar card of Bihar and the passbook of his bank account in Panipat. We checked with the nationalised bank and found his address in Panipat.”

“On checking the CDR of Mohammed Riyaz, we found that there was a single call of around 30 seconds made to a Gujarat mobile phone number in September 2025. We checked the number and found it belonged to Nirali Patel, the elder sister of Kinnary Patel. With this, we confirmed that both Mansuri and Kinnary were together in Panipat.”

A team of Valsad police left for Haryana and reached Panipat.

The arrest

Police had on Tuesday carried out raids in Ayan Enterprise, a shop in the market area in Panipat and caught Kinnary Patel and Mohammed Riyaz. Police also detained their 5-year-old son.

SOG inspector Roz said, “During questioning, the duo disclosed that they came in contact on November 28, 2013, in the prisoners’ family members visiting room at Surat Central Jail. They continued seeing and talking to each other regularly during their family members’ visits. They shared their criminal histories and developed a strong friendship which later turned into an affair.”

“They made a plan and decided to take their furlough and go on parole. After being released from jail at different times, they met and went directly to Buxar in Bihar, where they got married. They stayed away from Mansuri’s family. They moved to Panipat, Haryana, in 2019. The couple started working in shops of woollen sweaters, carpets, and bedsheets. They had a son and started their own shop in the market area at Panipat in January 2025 and were staying in a rented house.”