The man accused of killing his 18-year-old daughter on June 24 along with his relatives at their home at Dantiya village of Vav-Tharad district surrendered at Tharad police station at 10 pm on September 24, after absconding for 48 days, police said. The police subsequently obtained four days remand of the prime accused in the case, Sendha Darga Patel, from a local court. Sendha Darga Patel’s brother Shivram Darga Patel and cousin Naran Sava Patel had already been arrested in the murder of Chandrika Chaudhary. Chandrika, who is said to have scored well in the NEET, was allegedly killed by her family members after she was brought back home by police after she had eloped with a man named Haresh Chaudhary and entered into a live-in relationship with him. Inspector A T Patel of Deodar police station, who is the Investigation Officer (IO) in the case, told The Indian Express, "Sendha Patel confessed to the murder of Chandrika and revealed the entire sequence of events that led to her murder." When asked where he was in the 48 days, Sendha Patel told police that he had gone on a pilgrimage to Dwarka by foot. Dwarkadhish temple is more than 500 km from Patel's village of Dantiya, which is about 23 km from Tharad, the district headquarters of Vav-Tharad. According to police, Chandrika's father Sendha, his brother Shivram and cousin Naran allegedly drugged Chandrika with sleeping pills on June 24, and strangled her to death, and then hanged her body in the house to disguise it as a suicide. They then allegedly told villagers that Chandrika had died of a heart attack and cremated her body on June 25 itself, without even informing her younger brother who studies in another city.
