Gujarat police on Wednesday arrested five persons in connections with two high-profile cases: murder of a local journalist in Junagadh, and abduction of a medical college Dean and noted health expert.
Both cases had put a question mark on the effectiveness of Gujarat police, which is battling a deteriorating law and order situation in the State.
In the case of the brutal murder of Kishor Dave, the local journalist in Junagadh, three people have been arrested. They are alleged to have killed Mr Dave following a payment dispute in their business.
According to the police in Junagadh, the main accused, Feroz Ala, and two others, Sanjay Rathod and Arif Sayeed, were arrested on Wednesday.
“During the primary interrogation, they have confessed to killing of Dave,” said Junagadh police chief Nilesh Jajadia.
Mr. Dave was found dead in his office with knife stabbing injuries on Monday night.
The police said Firoz was Mr Dave's business partner -- the two were running a travel business with two mini buses.
“For the last few months Firoz had been insisting that ownership of one of the buses be transferred in his name, but Dave was not forthcoming after he failed to make payment to Firoz,” Mr. Jajadia said.
On Monday night, Firoz, Sanjay, and Arif went to Kishore's office where they entered into an argument following which Firoz stabbed him multiple times, police said.
Meanwhile in the case of Dr. Rajesh Mehta's abduction, two persons: Kalpesh Patel and Hitendrakumar Patel have been arrested and Dr. Mehta was rescued by the cops.
The cops said the duo had demanded ransom of Rs. two crore after kidnapping Dr. Mehta on August 19th.
“Kalpesh had earlier worked as Dr Mehta's driver. He and Hitendrakumar made a plan to abduct him and demand ransom from the family as they knew their social status and financial condition,” a police official said.
After Dr Mehta's abduction, the cops had formed as many as 16 teams involving police of Banaskantha and Patan districts and also Ahmedabad crime branch and Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) to solve the abduction case and free Dr Mehta.
Inspector General (IG) of border range A K Jadeja, who supervised the whole operation, said the police had launched an elaborate search operation in a dozen places in Gujarat and also a few places in neighbouring Rajasthan.
