Swaminarayan sect murder accused nabbed
The Vadodara police on Saturday arrested one of the prime accused in the Vadtal Swaminarayan Sect murder case. The accused had escaped from parole a year ago.
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The Vadodara police on Saturday arrested one of the prime accused in the Vadtal Swaminarayan Sect murder case. The accused had escaped from parole a year ago.
The Panigate police said that Madhav Prasad,alias Maldhar Swami,alias Harjivan Das Kothari,alias Mangal Medha Bhagat Chowdhury from Jalore district in Rajasthan,was arrested from Jail Road in Vadodara at 4:30 pm today while he was on his way to meet an acquaintance. He was sent to the Vadodara Central Jail in the evening.
Panigate Sub-Inspector M Pathan,who arrested the accused on the basis of a tip-off,said,Maldhar Swami is one of the five main accused in the abduction and murder case of Swami Gadadharanand in May 3,1998 in Vadtal over some monetary issue.
The Kheda police had first arrested the accused in 1999. Two years later,he jumped parole but was nabbed by the Mumbai Crime Branch.
On June 11,2004,a Nadiad court had pronounced his death sentence,but in July 2006,a division bench,upon hearing an appeal against the death sentence,visited the scene of the crime as the judgement of the Kheda District Court was reportedly based on circumstantial evidence.
In September 2006,the Gujarat High Court turned the death sentences into life imprisonment and acquitted an accused,Ghanshyam Swami,due to lack of evidence. The other accused are Naran Shastri,Shreecharan Swami and Vijay Bhagat.
The murder was reportedly the third in the 126-year-old history of the Swaminarayan Sect and was the result of a feud between two groups of sadhus.
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