Key arrest in Ruchi case

AHMEDABAD, April 13: Police on Monday night arrested the adopted son of Daxa Shukla, allegedly the key to the kidnapping of Ruchi Chavda,...

AHMEDABAD, April 13: Police on Monday night arrested the adopted son of Daxa Shukla, allegedly the key to the kidnapping of Ruchi Chavda, a three-year-old Gandhinagar girl who went missing on April 6.

Shukla8217;s son Kunal is a junior clerk in the Gujarat Maritime Board, and the Randal Ma pooja at her house, where some children, including Ruchi, had been brought, was allegedly performed to seek blessings for him. Ruchi had gone missing after the pooja.

Kunal has been remanded in police custody. Two others arrested in the case have been enlarged on bail. They are Manharba Jadeja, mother of the prime accused Nilesh Jadeja; and Heenalben, Ruchi8217;s teacher, who had allegedly tampered with the class muster roll.

Police had questioned Shukla and her son together on Monday night. She then complained of high blood pressure and was admitted to the Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar. She had then been brought to the New Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad. She was discharged on Tuesday afternoon.

Then Shukla and her friend Rashmi Mevada, who has also been arrested in connection with the case, were put through a lie-detector test. The test has not been completed, and they will be put through the lie detector once again on Wednesday.

Special Inspector-General Gandhinagar Amitabh Pathak, who is in charge of the investigation, said Shukla8217;s remand period ends on Wednesday, so she would be produced in court and police would seek further remand.

However, police is still not clear about the motive for the kidnapping. Ransom has more or less been ruled out as a motive. Nor are the investigators sure if the child is alive. And they still have no clue to the whereabouts of the absconding Jadeja, cleaner of the van that took Ruchi to school, and prime accused in the case.

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One theory doing the rounds is that Ruchi might have been ritually sacrificed to the Randal Ma deity. The other is that Jadeja might have been murdered by hired assassins to cover up for the crime.

Meanwhile, reporter Jaisukh Shah, who is said to have dropped some children home after the pooja at Shukla8217;s house, has not presented himself to police. His son still maintains that Shah is 8220;out of station and would depose before the police immediately on arrival8221;.

There have been complaints from some quarters about the slow pace of the investigation. Some have suggested the investigation be handed over to some other agency. However, the state government says it is not giving thought to 8220;such secondary issues8221;.