Web of vice in Jain muni’s murder

The chargesheet, filed in the court of the first class judicial magistrate, has also charged all seven accused in the case under Sections 120 (B), (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The seven are: Dr Champalal Desarda and Suwalal Chalani, trustees of the Guruganesh Shikshan Sanstha; Dr Shantilal Desarda, principal of the Dakshin Kesari Muni Mishrilalji Homoeopathy College run by the trust in the ashram premises; Bhikchand Pipade, supervisor at the ashram; Sandeep, son of Suwalal Chalani; Pravin alias Balu Surana, a friend ofSandeep; and Sanjay Bhadawe, who was allegedly hired by the other six to murder the muni in an encounter designed to look like a dacoity.

The chargesheet says the muni was spending more money on his affairs with at least two women visiting him at the ashram than on the ashram’s development. It was this weakness in the muni’s character that the trustees – Chalnani and Desarda – exploited to the fullest by threatening to go public about his affair, the chargesheet states.

The muni, who controlled the funds for the homoeopathy college as well as the ashram, finally decided to gag the trustees, who owed huge sums of money to the trust. Hence, he asked them to repay the `loans’ they had taken, failing which he threatened to eject them from the trust itself, the chargesheet reveals.

A decision to this effect was to be taken at a meeting convened by the muni at the ashram but the priest was killed before he could execute his threats. The conspiracy to kill the muni was hatched by the trustees, Chalnani,Desarda and Suwalal Chalani, along with Dr Shantilal Jain, while Pipada hired a Bhadawe, a history-sheeter, to execute the deed, reads the 136-page chargesheet.

Apart from the seven accused, the document also mentions 52 witnesses, four of them women. Pipada was the first accused to be arrested, on July 23, 1998. This was followed by the arrest of Sanjay Bhadawe two days later while the trustees and Dr Desarda and the other two accused were apprehended on July 29. The case, which had stunned the Jain community all over the country, was initially entrusted to the Criminal Investigation Department of the state police. However, commissioner of police, Shripad Kulkarni, who had already taken charge of the case expressed confidence that the city police could crack the case.