Blood line

A bitter three-way argument followed, in which the matriarch, too, was involved, say Detection of Crime Branch officials. It ended with Rekha being shot dead in the verandah of their house 8216;Shravan8217; on Kalavad Road, Rajkot, early the next morning as she was collecting the newspapers.

On July 27, Karan Jadeja was arrested in Mumbai and confessed to the murder.

On the Move

FOR Santokben, it was the denouement of her nightmares. For close to 20 years, she had fiercely protected her immediate family while honouring the unwritten code of the Mehr community to which she8212;and her late husband Sharman8212;belonged: Vengeance at any cost.

For 15 of those 20 years, she led from the front, initiating spine-chilling retaliatory killings first to avenge her husband8217;s murder and then to take control of the superlucrative coastal underworld.

But then came the crackdown: In 1988, Keshubhai Patel came to power and vowed to end the gangster raj in Porbandar. While several gang members died in police encounters, Santokben and her eldest son Kandhal8212;Rekha8217;s husband8212;were charged under TADA and thrown into Sabarmati Central Jail.

This was the time, say those in the inner circle, that Rekha began shedding her docile housewife image. With her husband in jail and brother-in-law Karan8212;the only other Jadeja boy to dirty his hands in the family business8212;absconding most of the time to stay out of the reach of the police, it was Rekha who accompanied her mother-in-law to court hearings, dealt with the finances and, finally, began having a say in family matters.

Simultaneously, Santokben8217;s health began to give way; she also developed a spinal cord problem. It was around this time that the family began to contemplate a move out of Porbandar8212;where the family was always under the watch of rival gangs8212;to the relative sophistication and safety of Rajkot.

Rekha supported the decision whole-heartedly: The city would offer much better schooling for her daughter, Aditi, around one at that time, and son Raj, who would come along later.

Power Centres

EVER since the move to Rajkot in 1997-98, say those who know the family intimately, the friction between Rekha and Karan became more pronounced.

Religious by nature8212;she would be the one fasting for the family during testing times and visiting the Jadejas8217; native village to worship the family goddess, Kandhali Devi8212;Rekha was also calm, confident and a natural administrator. Though she had studied only upto Std XI, she took charge of the family empire of legal and illegal businesses, valued at around Rs 900 crore, with ease.

And that, say friends of the family, was what Karan couldn8217;t stomach. 8216;8216;Karan is a spendthrift, he loves the good life. Swanky cars, the latest cellphones, huge restaurant and bar bills8230; Rekha objected to some of his spending,8217;8217; says a friend. 8216;8216;He hated having to ask her for money.8217;8217;

Rekha, to all accounts, knew her own mind. She wanted to send her children, now nine and four, away to her NRI brother in the UK, away from the shadow of crime, but Santokben and Kandhal would have none of it. She listened to them, but apparently disregarded Karan when he objected to her extending financial help to her family abroad and initiating bank transactions on her own.

8216;8216;Among Mehrs, it8217;s not uncommon to address elders casually, often disrespectfully. But all of them had respect for Santokben and Rekha,8217;8217; says a family friend.

Brothers in Arms

SANTOKBEN8217;S first-born and third-born, the only two of her four sons known to be involved in the family businesses, are diametrically opposite in character, say those in the know, though both are aggressive and ruthless.

Kandhal, named after the family deity, is said to be god-fearing, never taking a call without first remembering Kandhali Devi. He fell in love with Rekha after seeing her at a garba in Porbandar; her father, a business associate of Santokben8217;s, was only to happy to agree to the alliance. Ever the family man, he lived in Rajkot and looked after the transport, mines and real estate businesses in Porbandar and Rajkot.

Karan, on the other hand, spent most of his youth in Mumbai and Rajkot and was known as the rebel, fiery, hot-tempered and reckless. More than Santokben, his is the face associated with the Jadejas in Rajkot. Alongside serious crimes like murder and attempt to murder, he is also notorious for womanising and sexual harassment. He made his base in Surat and Ahmedabad.

And then, despite being wanted for jumping bail in a murder case, he decided to come home on May 19.