Ahmedabad Congress leader Satish Shah, who had gone missing on Tuesday morning, was found murdered in his car parked in the basement of Shukan shopping complex at Shahibaug on Wednesday.

Shah (57), a resident of Uday Apartment in the Sabarmati area, was general secretary of the Ahmedabad unit of Congress.

The Shahibaug police have arrested two persons in this connection and further investigations are on. The arrested persons were identified as Jitu Patel, a resident of Meghaninagar, and Raju Patel, a resident of Asarava.

According to the police,

a land deal worth Rs 35 lakh led to the murder. Deceased’s son Chintan Shah has lodged a complaint with the police in this regard.

Inspector J N Parmar, who is investigating the case, said: “Shah had bought some land near Kalol in Gandhinagar from the two (Jitu and Raju) at the cost of Rs 35 lakh. Later, he found the documents of the land deal fake, and demanded the money back from them.”

He added that the accused seemed to have hatched the conspiracy to “teach him a lesson”, as on Monday, they asked Shah to come to take the money. The next day, Shah sent Chintan to collect the amount.

“Subsequently, the duo kept Chintan captive at Raju’s residence in Asarava and called Shah to come

to formalise some legal process. When Shah went to meet Jitu around 8.30 am, the latter abducted him and took towards Gandhinagar. Jitu, along with his some other accomplices, strangulated the Congress leader in the car itself,” said Parmar.

After killing Shah, Jitu parked the car in the basement and went to Asarava where Chintan was held captive. “They took Chintan to a village near Mansa in Gandhinagar district and tried to strangulate him to death. Chintan, however, raised an alarm after which people in a nearby field saved him by catching the two accused, and informed the Mansa police,” Parmar added.

All three were handed over to the Shahibaug police and subsequently Shah’s body was recovered. Some paper cutouts in the shape of Indian currency notes were recovered from the car.

The police also found the key of Shah’s car and his mobile phone from the accused.

Source: expressindia